A homeowner says he is being driven round the bend by an onslaught of parking fines which has cost him £1,000.

Rob Smith, of Bower Lane, Maidstone, says despite having paid for his parking permit he is regularly forced to park more than five minutes away in St Michael’s Road, Maidstone.

When he does get a space on his own street, he claims he has received penalties from Maidstone council for his car bumper being an inch over the line on the space.

As well as £800 in fines, falling behind in his payments caused his car to be clamped, with a £435 release fee.

On another occasion he says he paid £350 to avoid having the car clamped.

He said: “We seem to only find out about our tickets weeks after the two-week fine reduction has passed. In other words, We have no ticket on our cars and the first we hear about it is when we get the full parking fine letter through the door.

“I’ve written to the council to try to get some form of relief from this, but we all get is the usual council policy letter back with no help or relief at all.”

Mr Smith says not only are the fines unfair, but that they are being enforced wrongly.

“We also have five parking bays outside our house that are owned by Kent County Council, not Maidstone Borough Council. Maidstone Borough Council is not permitted to issue parking tickets on those bays, but it does.

“When we contest them, we are told in a letter we have parked outside of the parking restrictions and we must pay the fine.”

“We are now considering moving out of Maidstone, as every spare penny we have is now going on paying off parking tickets" - Rob Smith

“We are now considering moving out of Maidstone, as every spare penny we have is now going on paying off parking tickets. We have paid nearly £1,000 this year in parking fines alone. As you know times are hard for families in the UK.”

A spokesman for Maidstone council said: “We are unable to comment on individual cases; however, it is important to manage any illegal or inconsiderate parking to ensure that those who park do so within the bay markings.

“It is not the vehicle extremities (such as the bumper) that are considered, but the wheels which are required to be placed within the confines of the parking bay.

“Where the wheels are placed outside the bay (and therefore the bumper being some way outside the parking bay) a penalty charge notice will be issued if observed by the Enforcement Officer.

“This is to make sure that the limited parking space available to residents is used considerately by all drivers.”

The spokesman went on to say the procedure is for penalty charge notices to either be affixed to the vehicle or handed to the driver.

Where affixed to the vehicle a photograph is taken of the notice attached to the vehicle.