A man in New Addington, south London, received four parking tickets after a disabled bay was painted around his legally parked car while he was away on holiday.
CCTV footage shared online shows a contractor measuring and marking the bay on 17 November, after the vehicle had been left on an unrestricted road outside the owner’s home. Between 22 and 26 November, four penalty charge notices (PCNs) were issued following the creation of the bay. Croydon Council later apologised, confirming that “the tickets were cancelled a week before the video was uploaded to social media.”
The vehicle owner, who has not been named, said: “It really put a damper on my holiday because I kept checking [the camera] to see what was wrong and there was nothing I could do. I didn’t want to go out and do the things I wanted to do because I was worried about the amount of tickets I was accumulating.”
On returning from his trip, he found two tickets on the windscreen while two others had been removed by an unknown individual. The disabled bay had been installed in response to a resident’s request. While he acknowledged the importance of the bay, he criticised the council for failing to notify residents beforehand. “It’s the same as doing an extension or any other road work – you let people know. Without any communication with your community, that’s the wrong way to do it,” he said.
The footage also shows the contractor photographing the car after painting to alert the council not to issue a fine. Despite this, a parking attendant, unaware of the situation, issued tickets on separate days. The owner shared the video on social media following criticism from residents who assumed he had parked illegally. He said: “It really upset me. I just thought, ‘Why are you looking at me as the bad guy?’ But I do understand, somebody obviously didn’t know that I parked there before the bay was drawn.”
He added that he had never received written confirmation from the council that the PCNs were cancelled. “Nothing in writing. Only a comment from them on the video. I think the issue here is because there was no communication in the beginning, there has been a snowball effect of wrongdoing.”
Croydon Council explained that painting the bay around the car is “standard practice” to avoid delays, which would occur if contractors had to wait for the space to be free. A spokesperson said: “Unfortunately one of our parking attendants was not informed and issued parking tickets. However, these were not processed into fines because we had a note on the system from our contractor.”
The council also urged residents not to abuse staff online, noting that the car parking attendant involved had suffered online abuse. They requested: “Residents with concerns should contact us directly and not abuse staff carrying out their duties.”
