Elderly driver, 85, escapes £130 parking fine for answering call of nature ‘to avoid crashing’

A pensioner has seen his parking penalty ripped up after he successfully argued he had the right to park illegally so he could answer the call of nature.

Michael Nyman, 85, was fined £130 for parking on a pavement but it was later quashed when an appeals body ruled that he could have been involved in a crash “if he had not stopped to relieve himself”.

The ruling appears to confirm that the loo can be defined as an “emergency”, particularly among older people, and justifies the temporary flouting of parking rules.

Mr Nyman, from Hindhead, Surrey, was driving through central London on November 15 last year when he became heavily delayed in traffic.

He said he desperately needed the toilet but could not find a proper place to pull off the road so mounted the pavement on Park Road, just west of Regent’s Park, and stopped outside a florist.

Once parked, Mr Nyman rushed inside to use the loo but he insisted that he was parked for no more than three minutes and did not cause an obstruction.

However, he received a penalty notice from Transport for London a week later for the offence of being “parked with one or more wheels on or over a footpath”, which carries a £130 penalty.

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Mr Nyman said he immediately contacted TfL to offer an explanation but it was rejected before the appeals body ruled in his favour.

There has been a surge in the number of parking tickets issued by local councils, with figures showing that local authorities made a record £819 million profit from their parking operations, including penalty income and charges, in the last year – a rise of 10% in 12 months.

Parking on pavements is allowed in London only if permission has been given by a police officer, the vehicle is broken down or it is an emergency situation, including saving a life or putting out a fire.