A Berkshire council that painted parking bays up to a metre too narrow to comply with government recommendations has still raked in cash from charging motorists for being outside the lines, it has emerged.
Retired architect Stan Green, who measured the spaces, estimates that up to 90% of the bays in the West Berkshire town of Newbury are under-size and is calling on the council to refund drivers who have been caught out as a result.
West Berkshire Council admitted that last year alone it fined 142 motorists £50 for ‘not parking wholly within the bay’ in Newbury, the Telegraph has reported.
The Government recommends all municipal parking bays should be a minimum of 2.4 metres by 4.8 metres.
Mr Green has found bays that were up to a metre too short, yet after a personal email exchange with council officers the architect was told the council would continue to rely on the ‘discretion and common sense’ of its traffic wardens.
Mr Green told the Telegraph: ‘It seems as many as 90% of the bays in Newbury are below the Government's recommended dimensions. Some are even too small for a Mini!
‘And I failed to find one big enough to accommodate fully a 4 x 4 model or many larger saloon cars. During my investigation, I discovered that up to 30% of vehicles were not fully in their bay so, technically, were breaching regulations, and making their owners liable for a fine. Bays were a whole metre short in one car park, which is absurd.’
He added: ‘It would be an absolute scandal if fines have been issued to motorists whose vehicles have been found outside a bay, when the bay was not the right size. I don't think West Berkshire's transport and parking people have deliberately made the bays smaller to mug motorists. In truth, it looks like incompetence.’
A West Berkshire Council spokesman said: ‘The parking bay sizes are government guidelines only, not regulations. The bays at existing sizes have been in place for well over a decade. We have had no complaints from any drivers about the size of the bays prior to Mr Green’s. It is only drivers parking over the width of the bays that concern us, since that potentially occupies two parking spaces.
‘We have not ticketed any driver for parking beyond the length of the bay. Undoubtedly many cars are now bigger, for example 4x4s. If we were to widen parking bays it would mean a lot less parking spaces for motorists in town.’
