A BOROUGH businessman has won his appeal against a parking ticket levied by an enforcement officer while goods were being unloaded into his shop.

Blair Lloyd-Warne runs his Vape shop in Stanford-le-Hope where he has been a frequent critic of local parking restrictions and improper enforcement which he believes is threatening the livelihoods of shop owners like himself.

There is limited parking in Stanford town centre and huge controversy over parking charges imposed by its private owners on the one sizeable parking space in the town - sold off by Thurrock Council on the cheap several years ago.

Mr Lloyd-Warne believes the parking system is being abused by a local car sales outlet, which fills up several of the few non-pay parking spaces every day, meaning not only do customers find it difficult to park - so do shop owners when they deliver to their premises.

Which is exactly what happened last November when Mr Lloyd-Warne was unable to park when making a delivery to his shop on the Green. He parked safely, without causing an obstruction on adjacent double yellow lines but while he was taking packages of goods into the shop a warden pounced and fined him £70!

Mr Lloyd-Warne protested to the ticket officer at the time, pointing out it was clear he was delivering to the shop. But to no avail.

He decided to appeal the ticket and then the true ineptness of Thurrock Council's parking enforcement really kicked in.

Having registered his appeal, Mr Lloyd-Warne should have been given an extended time to pay dependent on the outcome of the appeal, but Thurrock Council barged in and ramped up the fine to £105.

In his letter of appeal the aggrieved shop owner said: "I feel the ticket was issued unfairly as my vehicle wasn't parked, it was stopped for the purpose of unloading goods into my shop. I believe that this would have been obvious to the enforcement offices that I was unloading due to the very short distance between where my vehicle was and the entrance to my shop.

"My shop is within a resident parking area with the exception of a three car bay directly outside my shop. This bay is a three hour bay. Despite my constant complaining to the council this parking bay is never enforced and has cars parked in it for days at a time.

"In fact if you look at the picture of my vehicle taken by the officer you can see a white VW Transporter van parked in the bay. That vehicle at that time had been there for over three weeks without receiving ticket.

"This can be confirmed by Cllr Gary Byrne of Thurrock Council to whom I had been complaining about this matter in the days leading up to my ticket being issued.

"These unenforced bays are the only place I could stop my vehicle to unload without risking a ticket.

"Looking at the pictures taken by the enforcement officers you can see that in one picture the boot of the vehicle is closed and in another the boot is open, this shows the very short period of time between me carrying boxes into my shop and returning to the vehicle. It is also worth pointing out that the goods being transported are nicotine based so are classed as "age restricted" therefore the boot of the vehicle must be closed between trips in and out of the shop.

"I feel that since the council introduced the resident parking zone in Stanford-le-Hope local shop keepers have been unfairly targeted. My shop has no rear access therefore all goods need to come through the front door, there is no goods loading bay anywhere in our town and this is affecting every shop keeper.

"The area where I stopped my vehicle was not causing an obstruction to other road users or pedestrians, it wasn't blocking access to anything nor was it obstructing the view of any junctions therefore I believe I chose the safest place to unload given the absence of any loading bays.

"It is also worth noting that my house is in the same road as the shop and is so close that there would be no point parking at the shop when my house is only a five minute walk away, my vehicle only ever goes to the shop when it's being used for transporting goods."

Mr Lloyd-Warne believed he had a good case anyway, but Thurock Council lit the blue touch paper on the collapse of their own case.

Firstly, in their evidence to the appeal, instead of a map of the layout of the Green in Stanford-le-Hope, they sent a map of Orsett village.

And by raising the fine to £105 they breached their own rules.

In quashing the fine, the adjudicator made reference to all the supportive evidence produced by Mr Lloyd-Warne, but didn't even need to consider it.

A verdict said: "I have considered all of the evidence and I am going to allow Mr Lloyd-Warne's appeal because I find the council made an error in relation to their enforcement processes, without further consideration of the issues raised.

"In particular I find the council made an error in relation to the issue of a charge certificate.

"I do not accept that this is a minor slip. That error amounts to a procedural impropriety. I am satisfied the council got its process wrong."