"It's just not fair": Driver slams council for misleading parking fine
A furious motorist has taken aim at a Sydney council's parking solution that resulted in an "outrageous" and "unjustified" fine.
Ben drives to the Campbelltown train station in South West Sydney every day for his workday commute, and has recently been forced to find alternative parking plans due to a major disruption.
A multi-deck carpark is being built near the station to accommodate the influx of traffic, but while the site is under construction, a makeshift parking lot has been set up.
While the new car park will add 500 parking bays when completed, residents have claimed the council has drastically reduced the number of spaces in the meantime.
Ben told 9news.com.au parking had become "a nightmare" since the temporary lot opened, leaving many motorists with no option but to park along the fence line.
It's this act that saw Ben receive a $129 parking fine in the mail.
He was outraged when he was issued a fine on February 9th for "not stand vehicle in a marked parking space" when he had no other parking option.
"They've advertised that the temporary car park is the same amount of spaces lost during the construction, which is severely incorrect," he said.
"I can only assume they are fining loads of drivers as that space along the fence line is always full of cars parked the same as mine was."
Along with the fine itself, ticket inspectors supplied Ben a photo of a wordy and confusing sign located near the entrance to the lot, which only added to his frustration with the local council.
He said while there were no marked bays along the fence line, signage was not clear enough to indicate to drivers they weren't allowed to park there.
"I mean it's just not fair. It's a temporary gravel parking lot," he said.
"They've created this mess and now they are targeting innocent commuters fighting to just leave their car somewhere to catch public transport into work."
A spokesperson for Campbelltown City Council told Nine News they understood the construction of the new car park would "create some disruption".
"A temporary 113-space parking lot has been opened adjacent to the existing parking lot in order to offset some of the parking loss," they said.
The council was "actively monitoring and reviewing the current parking and signage arrangements as well as community feedback, to identify any further improvements that could be made and inform any additional community notification required".
"While this review takes place, vehicles will only be fined where a safety risk to both other vehicles and/or pedestrians is identified," the spokesperson said.
Image credits: Nine News