A MAN who followed instructions to use his 2016 residents’ parking permit in January this year says he “wasn’t at all surprised” when he received a fine for doing so.

Dave Hasney, from Northallerton, said the penalty notice was the latest in a long line of issues with parking enforcement in the town.

Residents who park outside their homes on Romanby Road received a letter from North Yorkshire County Council in December last year, stating they should continue using their 2016 permits in January 2017.

The letter stated that a parking review was being carried out in January and “no permits will be issued until the matter is concluded. In the meantime please continue to use your 2016 permit.”

But on January 17 Mr Hasney discovered he had and other residents had received penalty charge notices for using their expired parking permits.

The penalty was overturned when he contacted Scarborough Borough Council, who oversee the management of parking enforcement on behalf of North Yorkshire County Council.

The resident said: “I understand some of my neighbours remonstrated with the enforcement officer, saying we had been told by North Yorkshire County Council to use them and he told them it wasn’t down to him.

“I can sort of see if from his point of view, he was there to do a job, but some common sense should have been applied.

“When I received the letter telling me to continue using the permit in January I said to my wife, ‘I bet we get a parking ticket’ and we did.”

Mr Hasney said he had been issued with a penalty notice on two previous occasions whilst parking outside his home, because the residents’ parking disc holder had fallen from his windscreen during warm weather. One ticket was cancelled, but the next was enforced, as he was told his excuse could “only be used once”.

He said: “Is this system about traffic management or income revenue? That’s why everybody is so frustrated about this.”

A North Yorkshire County Council spokesman said: “As a result of an error in communication, a handful of parking notices were issued to permit holders by enforcement officers from Scarborough Borough Council, which administers parking enforcement for the county council. As soon as both councils were aware of the error, the tickets were rescinded and apologies given to the people who received them.”