Council Paints Disabled Bay Around Car, Then Gives Owner A Parking Ticket

If this had been an April Fool’s Day joke, you’d have to say it was very creative.

Matt Armstrong, 46, left his home in West Norwood, South London on April 1 to find a disabled parking bay had been painted around his car.

To top it all off, there was even a parking ticket detailing a fine for £110 on the windscreen of his Renault Clio.

But, unfortunately, what looked like an elaborate joke was nothing of the sort - his council had in fact painted the space and issued him with the fine.

The mistake is believed to be the result of a request from a neighbour for a disabled space made more than two years ago.

“I was absolutely livid but it’s the sort of thing you expect from Lambeth Council,” said Mr Armstrong.

“It hadn’t been a good week financially and then I was hit by this fine.

“It was dated March 31 and the painting must have been done either during the night or early in the morning.

“Nobody saw or heard anything.”

Mr Armstrong, a stage technician at the Adelphi Theatre in London, said: “My neighbour asked for a disabled bay for her husband about two-and-a-half-years ago.

“They never put one in and her husband died about two months ago.

“It must be quite upsetting for her. They never delivered the parking bay while he was alive and her husband has only just recently died.”

Lambeth Council has withdrawn the fine. It said: “We’ll cancel the fixed penalty notice and are investigating why there was some confusion around the marking of the disabled bays.”

(Pictures: SWNS)