A woman who parked unintentionally with one wheel on a kerb has told of her disbelief at being fined for “obstructing the pavement”.

Former teacher Catherine Caplan was slapped with a £35 fixed penalty notice after leaving her Ford Ka with part of a rear tyre on the walkway in Hanover Place, Canterbury.

The 59-year-old says she accidentally left the hatchback’s wheel on the kerb, metres from her Beverley Road home, after struggling to squeeze it into a space in the dark.

She went out to her car the following morning to see a ticket had been issued an hour earlier, shortly after 9am.

“I was trying to reverse in between two parked cars,” she said.

“At first I thought they were saying I didn’t have a permit but when I read the small print it said I was in breach of a byelaw for obstructing the pavement.

“I thought it was ridiculous. It wasn’t even a whole tyre – it was like two-thirds of my rear tyre that was there, accidentally.”

Mrs Caplan says she paid the fine for fear of the charge doubling to £70 after an appeal to overturn it was unsuccessful.

The married mum believes the warden acted overzealously – and is calling for the local authority to exercise greater levels of discretion when dishing out fines.

“It’s been playing on my mind because I think it’s so unfair,” she added.

“I was miffed. I just thought ‘could they not have seen that it was an accident?’

“I wasn’t parking on the pavement to avoid something or protect my car – it’s a £900 car.

"It wasn’t even a whole tyre – it was like two-thirds of my rear tyre that was there, accidentally..."

“It was extreme and there were no allowances made for human error. They could see I’m a resident here and I wasn’t trying to get a quick place.”

In the weeks since the fine, Mrs Caplan has avoided parking in the same space and is warning other road users not to fall foul of the rule.

The city council wrote to her yesterday morning offering a refund after “reviewing this penalty further”. (Dec 9)

It said: “We have cancelled the Penalty Charge Notice and sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

A city council spokesman claims Mrs Caplan had been asked by an enforcement officer to move her car off the pavement, but that when the warden returned an attempt to re-park had left part of one wheel still on the kerb.

Mrs Caplan strongly denies this claim, saying she was not spoken to by a warden and only discovered she had been ticketed the following morning.

The council spokesman said: “Getting in the way of pedestrians by parking on the pavement generates lots of complaints from the public.

“It makes it harder for parents with pushchairs, disabled people and those out for a walk during a pandemic to pass by others at a safe distance.

“That means where there is a pavement parking ban, we will enforce it, and there is no argument this ticket was issued correctly, even if it was a case of poor parking rather than any real intent.

“The ticket was issued on our enforcement officer’s return after they had previously warned the driver and they had moved their car in an effort to comply.

“Having said that, we approach appeals with a heavy dose of common sense and this fine has now been cancelled.

“Hopefully, a little bit of parking practice means they will not be in this position again in the future.”

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