A pensioner who has been at loggerheads with his local council since they tried to strip him of his parking permit has emerged victorious.
Richard Payne, 72, had spent £360 on parking permits over the course of 20 years which allowed him to leave his car within his postcode area.
However, Medway Council tried to revoke it by claiming that he and other residents living on Florence Street lived on a “private road”.
The local authority said that locals should never have been entitled to the permits and that this went unnoticed for two decades due to a “human error”.
Pensioner wins row with council after they tried to strip him of parking permit
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Payne said the new rules meant he had “no choice but to break the law” and park his car where he had parked it for years.
The 72-year-old said: “It had proved impossible because the only place I could find to park was a road near me which is on a hill. But my wife could not walk there so I had to bring the car round to the road opposite our house each time so she could get in.”
The street that Payne lives on is very “narrow”, which means that there is little room for residents to park.
Payne decided to dispute the changes and following an investigation, the Local Government Ombudsman deemed that the 72-year-old had been right all along.
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He said: “The findings were that they [the council] originally said it was an audit error.
“Then they said it was a computer update that had removed Florence Street from the scheme in error and then it transpired that an officer overlooked the traffic regulation order which confirmed that my street was within the controlled parking zone.”
An agreement has now been reached which states that the pensioner will be given £100 as a sign of goodwill for the stress caused.
Residents on the street, including Payne, must be issued a parking permit for one year free of charge by Medway Council.
However, Payne has said that despite the agreement, he feels defeated, and is still frustrated at the council for wasting taxpayer’s money.
Medway Council tried to revoke the parking permits by claiming that residents living on Florence Street lived on a ‘private road’
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He said: “I don’t feel any satisfaction really, the tone of the letters and the dismissive way I was treated was just a shame.
“There was no effort at all to resolve it.
“I’m not triumphant about this, I don’t want to hold banners up – it’s just a lesson for any council that you really need to do your homework before you start chucking your weight around – which is what they were doing,” he added.
A Medway Council spokesperson said: “Due to an administrative error, eligibility for a residential parking permit was incorrectly revoked and a complaint was upheld by the Local Government Ombudsman.
“As a result, we have compensated the resident and provided an annual residential parking permit free of charge.
“We would like to offer our sincere apologies for the error and the inconvenience and distress this has caused.”