Town Hall cancels £100 penalty after driving instructor protests

A PARKING ticket was dished out to a driving instructor after a learner stalled a car during a lesson in a Camden Town street.
Red-faced Town Hall chiefs have been forced to tear up the parking penalty they issued to instructor Ken Watson. He had been told to cough up £100.
Mr Watson was sent CCTV stills taken by a spy-camera in Albert Street last month.
Wardens said the footage proved he had broken the rules by failing to park close enough to the kerb. But after looking a little more closely at the pictures, embarrassed wardens realised they had got it all wrong.
The clips did not show Mr Watson parking his car. In fact, he was giving a driving lesson in which his pupil, who wishes to remain anonymous, stalled as she struggled to reverse park.
Teacher and pupil attempted the manoeuvre – a tricky task for learners – three times before Mr Watson stopped the car in a safe place and gave advice on how to improve her skills.
Mr Watson, who lives in Bloomsbury and works for the British School of Motoring, said: “If I had done something wrong, I wouldn’t have minded and I would have paid the ticket but we weren’t trying to park.”
As the alleged infringement was picked up by the Town Hall’s CCTV enforcement squad and not patrolling wardens, Mr Watson knew nothing about the penalty until he received a letter.
He said: “If they have cameras on every street and hand out fines like this then there will be nowhere where we can take our pupils. It will make our job impossible.
“The pupil has not yet passed her test. We use Albert Street because it is good for testing observation. But I haven’t used it since this.”
Mr Watson took up the case with Town Hall Conservative Party leader Councillor Piers Wauchope, who has been critical of the council’s enforcement methods.
Cllr Wauchope, who has conducted his own investigation into parking in Camden, said the botched ticket was another example of over-zealous practices which had made the borough a minefield for drivers.
He added: “This is just the sort of case we warned about. The council is so obsessed about making money from parking tickets that corners are cut and proper checks are not being made.”
A council press official said: “The length of time the car was stationary would normally result in a penalty notice being issued.
“However, we are always willing to review any case. Given these circumstances we are happy to use our discretion and cancel this ticket.”