OK... last Friday the council finally managed to get their act together and replaced all the de-faced signs in the area with brand new one. So no free parking... for a while. Come Monday morning they were all sprayed-over with black paint again, so business as usual for the locals...
There are three bays that are affected by this, two are Residents Parking and one is Pay-and-Display (or that's what they are when the signs are visible anyway). On Wednesday I left my car on the Pay-and-Display bay (again, while the sign was not legible), and got a ticket.
I sent an 'informal appeal' yesterday, but when I spoke to the local garage owner he said that the Traffic Warden was handing out tickets only to cars parked at the Pay-and-Display bay, but not at the Residents Parking pay, and the reason is that the Pay-and-Display ticket machine has a small plaque showing the controlled hours.
Now I find this very interesting... the Council makes the rules, and then enforces them with vigour. But when they break their own rules, their approach seems very cavalier...
If my informal appeal will be rejected, I will send in a formal appeal with a copy of the council rules regarding location of parking restriction post signs.
