A FURIOUS motorist has thrown in the towel in a battle with the district council over a parking ticket. Mrs Monica Jones, of Nuns Lane, St Albans, had appealed against a penalty charge in July which claimed that she had not displayed a valid ticket at the

A FURIOUS motorist has thrown in the towel in a battle with the district council over a parking ticket.

Mrs Monica Jones, of Nuns Lane, St Albans, had appealed against a penalty charge in July which claimed that she had not displayed a valid ticket at the Keyfield Terrace car park.

She returned to her car, for which she had purchased a ticket up valid until 11.20am that day, at 11.12am only to find a parking attendant walking off after putting a penalty charge notice on the windscreen of her car. She went after him to challenge why he had put a ticket on the vehicle but, she said, he just walked away.

She got in the car and scrunched up the ticket before she looked at it to see that it definitely did say 11.20am. But the parking attendant, in his notes, said she was not displaying a valid ticket.

Mrs Jones appealed against the penalty notice and when she was provided with photographic evidence, she said it clearly showed that where the penalty notice was placed under one of the wipers it was covering where she had left the ticket on the dashboard which could be seen partially sticking out.

But her appeal was not upheld and she now feels she has no alternative other than to pay the �25 fine.

She said: "I have lived in St Albans for 30 years and use that car park every time I park in the town.

"I have no option other than to pay it but I wanted to let other people know about it."

A spokesperson for the district council maintained that the parking attendant had looked inside the car to see if the ticket had fallen on the floor but the only one that he could see was not valid for that day.