Bedford Driving Lessons

MOTORIST Sue Cooke is furious a penalty notice was slapped on her windscreen, because a warden said he wasn’t allowed to scrape away snow to see the valid parking ticket underneath. The sales assistant had parked on a car park in the centre of Leek during Wednesday’s blizzards to avoid causing a traffic hazard on side streets. But she was given a ticket by a warden employed by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council; even though her pay and display ticket still had two hours 10 minutes on it. She is doubly angry the warden was able to prise the frozen windscreen wiper from her car to put the ticket on, but was not able to dust the snow off the window. The mother-of-two will now have to go through the appeals procedure against the £50 penalty – at a cost to the council taxpayer. Traders now say they fear over-zealous parking wardens will deter customers from visiting Leek in the run-up to Christmas. Mrs Cooke, who works at WH Smith in Derby Street, Leek, confronted the warden later in the day, and he claimed he could not clear the snow in case he was accused of scratching her car. The 55-year-old grandmother-of-two, of Fernwood Drive , Leek, said: “I was absolutely livid. He said he was not able to touch the car, but he was able to lift the frozen cold windscreen wiper, which must have been absolutely stuck solid. “There was more of a chance damaging the car doing that, than wiping away snow. I showed him the ticket and he said he had not been able to see it because of the snow. “There was an absolute blizzard that day. I bet I was not the only one to have got a ticket and I hope everyone else also appeals.” Other motorists, who were unable to move their cars from the town’s High Street car park during heavy snow were also fined. Vice chairman of Leek Chamber of Trade Marc Briand, who is the co-owner of Colloco, said the fine was ‘outrageous’ given the atrocious weather conditions on Wednesday. He said: “It shows the appetite is for booking cars, rather than freeing up parking spaces and keeping the traffic moving.” More