This wasn't local authority or police or council. It was actially on the access road to the station in a privately operated pay & display car park.
Ok, the story. . . Saturday 1st June.
I had to go from Yatton to Bristol in the morning, on the train to collect a car i'd just bought - (a train ride of about 20 minutes).
My plan - drive the car to Yatton station. Buy a parking ticket at the pay & display machine ( ?1.40 all day on Saturdays & Sundays), then when i'm back home in the "new" car, ride my mountain bike from home to Yatton station, chuck the bike in the back & drive my "old" car back home. Should've been all done & dusted by lunchtime.
However, i had visitors all Saturday afternoon who stayed until 7:30pm, so didn't get to collect the car in the afternoon - at this point, still covered until midnight by the "all day" ticket.
Next, i had to rush up to London where my wife is in hospital (she has terminal cancer). The visitors dropped me at the station at 8:15pm Saturday evening, knowing i already had a car there to drive home in.
Also, i knew that the parking ticket on the car would run out at 12:00 midnight, so i rushed down to the machine which said that all "day" tickets at weekends run out at midnight.
This put me in a spot, as i knew i wouldn't be back on the train until at least 8:00am Sunday morning & there was absolutely no provision to cater for an overnight stay in the car park, as buying a ticket at 8:15pm would technically run out at midnight too. . . my train was only 5 minutes away.
So, i bought another "day" ticket (the only ticket on offer) & even though i bought it at 8:15pm, it still ran out at midnight.
I put this ticket, with the original ticket in the windscreen, along with a note saying that i had had to rush up to London & wouldnt be back until the morning & as the machine made no provision for an overnight train journey, i had to buy a second "all day" ticket to cover me for 12:01am through to when my train came back in from London (7:45am).
I highlighted the fact that there is no provision for overnight stays (even though there were loads of other cars in the car park ovenight), but essentially, i had bought & paid for two "all day" tickets - one for all day Saturday & one for all day Sunday.
Well, you can imagine how pissed off i was when i got back from visiting my dying wife to find a ticket on my car for "not displaying a valid ticket" - issued about 10 minutes before my train came in:rant:.
?50 if i pay within 7 days or ?80 if i dont.
Now do you understand why i dont want to pay?:dunno: