AN irate motorist has won a battle with a Basildon parking firm after appealing against a fine.

Chris Duck, 33, won the appeal against Simple Intelligent Parking (SIP) after he was fined for parking in the bowl car park in Station Way, near to Trafford House.

Mr Duck appealed the fine after he found that there was no clear signage to show that cameras were in place to monitor parking.

Mr Duck said: “I went to collect my partner from Basildon station after I had been to visit my family in Wickford.

“I wasn’t sure what train she was on until I arrived at the station. On arriving at the station, noting that the road nearest the station was a taxi rank, I drove into the car park to wait for her there. There were empty spaces around me, I waited in the car until my partner arrived.”

Although Mr Duck admitted that his fine was deserved, he could not understand how he had received the fine as there were no parking enforcement officers in the car park at the time. He later found out that the fine was issued through ANPR cameras that had not been made clear when he entered the car park. He said: “I did look at the rest of the signs in the car park, none of which referenced ANPR signage.

“I highlighted in an appeal to SIP that I had remained in my car whilst waiting for my partner, and made them aware of the fact that their signage did not reference ANPR signage.”

Mr Duck, who lives in Colchester, said that he returned to the car park the day after he had received the fine to check if there was any signs to show that the cameras were in use, however, he didn’t find any.

Mr Duck said that the parking firm denied this and that there was signage in place.

The following week, he returned to the car park, where he found that signs had been put in place to alert drivers of the cameras. Mr Duck said: “This angered me, it was clear to me that they had decided to ‘fix’ the problem by way of putting up new signs.” Mr Duck had taken pictures with dates written on them to show when the signs were and were not in place. Following the pictures being sent to the parking company, his fine was lifted and now there as clear signs for drivers in the future.