A Bristol woman has described her parking nightmare, in which "every single car" on her street was given a ticket after markings were resprayed 'without notice'. Tabitha Read, 33, says parking on Hinton Road "does not meet the needs of residents," who have no other option but to park outside their homes where there are restrictions in place.
Tabitha, mum to three-month-old Lyla, says parking on Hinton Road, just off Fishponds Road, is restricted to two hours, with no return within four hours. She says this is "ridiculous" as there is no need for restrictive parking as the street is mostly residential with no shops or takeaways.
The parking ordeal came to a head on Saturday (May 7) when parking boxes on Hinton Road were resprayed without notice, which meant "every single car" on the street was left with a parking ticket, Tabitha claims. She says it was "cruel" of Bristol City Council to respray the markings on a Saturday when cars will be parked on the street, adding the situation has caused her a "lot of stress."
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Tabitha said: "I live on Hinton Road, a small residential cul-de-sac just off Fishponds Road. For some ridiculous reason, we have very restrictive parking rules on our road that mean the majority of the street is only two-hour parking with no return within four hours.
"For a street where most of the houses are flats or shared houses this does not meet the needs of the residents who need to park outside their house. For the whole time I have lived here this rule hasn't been enforced and so residents use the whole street for parking."
Tabitha says she received a parking ticket after getting home from work late one day, and decided to dispute it, claiming the road signs and markings aren't clear. She says she finds it unfair that the council came to the street on a Saturday to respray the markings, and doesn't understand why rules are being enforced "so sporadically."
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She continued: "Last week the white boxes were resprayed and when we left our house on Saturday every single car on the street had a parking ticket. The council must have made £500 with this move. To do it on a Saturday when people wouldn't be going to work makes it seem even crueler."
Tabitha says the parking situation is a "massive headache," especially with a young baby. "This parking is causing me so much stress. I have got a very new baby so can't be looking for parking on other streets.
"I'm also on maternity pay now so this fine has really but a huge strain on my already tight household budget. I have written to my MP and local councillors because I really feel we should have residents parking on this street."
A Bristol City Council Spokesperson said: "We recognise concerns raise by residents at these fines and have reviewed the situation to ensure they were issued correctly. The limited waiting parking restrictions on Hilton Road have been in place since 2015 and cover Monday to Saturday 7am to 6:30pm. No new restrictions have been introduced and the line painting carried out recently was to ensure the marked bays are visible."
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