Some time ago I parked my car to go and do some shopping. My car was parked legally.

On my way back to my car, I was phoned on my mobile phone by my mother’s carer. My mother is very elderly and very ill.

The carer asked me to buy something urgently from the chemist. As I was just passing a chemist at the time, I immediately went in and purchased what had been requested.

I returned to my car to find a parking ticket on the windscreen, for having arrived back at my car three minutes late.

I had not intended to do anything illegal and wrote immediately to explain why I had returned to my car three minutes late.

However, the parking department replied, stating that “having read my reason, they did not consider it to be sufficiently acceptable to cancel the fine”.

Unfortunately, the people in the parking department are only interested in exacting money under false pretences, in order to pay for errors made elsewhere in the borough.

I am certain that had I committed a murder, I would have received a more sympathetic response.

The ridiculous, confusing and ever-changing parking restrictions have had a devastating effect on our local shops.

The traffic is more congested than ever. Councillor Brian Coleman and the rest of his associates should be “run out of town”.

They are not helping the residents or local business in any way. They are just using the poor motorists and residents to extract money to pay for their continuing mistakes.

Can we all get together and protest long and loud until we have a more efficient, effective and honest approach to cars, public transport and the inhabitants of the borough of Barnet?

Marilyne Road
address supplied