A Finchley man who received a parking ticket in Ballards Lane last January had it rescinded eleven months later by Barnet Council after successfully arguing there was no yellow line.

Adam Fineberg, of Gordon Road, was incensed to find he had received the ticket when he parked his car outside Martin's Newsagents.

Mr Fineberg said: "I parked my car outside the newsagents and there was no yellow line. I asked the traffic warden if it was OK to park there and he said it was."

When Mr Fineberg wrote to Barnet Council, including photos of the kerbside, he was told the attendant had no recollection of the conversation with him and that a site visit had found the line to be perfectly visible.

A series of letters from the council demanding £30 payment were followed by an unpaid penalty charge of £95 and a bailiffs notice for £136.

However, last month, Mr Fineberg received a letter from the council saying "as the single line is currently not visible in places in the location which you were parked within and the line is not clearly visible in your photograph, we have cancelled the PCN".

Mr Fineberg said: "I am a consultant and it probably cost me several hundred pounds in time for a couple of wasted days through telephone calls and letters.

"I didn't even receive an apology."

Barnet Council's acting head highways manger, Andy Cunningham, said: "We have decided on this occasion that there is sufficient doubt and confusion over this and we are prepared to let the matter drop."

December 17, 2001 14:03

KEVIN BURCHALL