Parking fine leaves North Berwick visitor with ‘sour taste’

Jim Fraser, of Dunfermline, has visited the seaside town regularly in the past 40 years to see his mum, who lives on Forth Street.

But a trip in July left him and his wife Pauline with a £120 fine after parking for the day in The Glebe car park on St Andrews Street . . . because the signs informing the public that it is short-stay only were hidden by trees.

Mr Fraser said: “I contacted East Lothian Council but they weren’t interested at all in the fact that the parking signs were covered over.

“I had to go to the Scottish parking adjudicator, who found in my favour ultimately.

“I had to go through an absolute ton of hassle; I stay in Fife, so I had to go back down and take pictures and make sure my case was watertight, all because East Lothian Council rejected my claim.”

The Glebe car park, whose signs notifying its restrictions were covered by trees

Mr and Mrs Fraser had driven from their Fife home in two cars because, said Mr Fraser, “we have three kids and a lot of stuff”.

When they returned to their cars at the end of the day, they found a ticket for £30 on both cars – and many other vehicles in the car park also had tickets.

Mr Fraser said: “There were no signposts that we could see, we parked the cars and at the end of the day we came back and we got tickets. And loads of people had tickets that day.”

East Lothian Council rejected Mr Fraser’s appeal and raised the fine to £60 per car. It took an official appeal to the General Regulatory Chamber to have the fines overturned.

And the experience “was just a piece of nonsense”, said Mr Fraser.

He added: “I just thought, this reflects really badly on North Berwick itself, the fact there must be loads of tourists who were caught with this and just paid the fine.”

Mr Fraser claimed that a simple internet search showed the council had taken “tens of thousands of pounds” in parking fines.

The Glebe car park, whose signs notifying its restrictions were covered by trees

He added: “It’s tens of thousands of pounds they’ve got off people, kind of in a not legitimate way, because I won my case and I’m sure a lot of other people should be able to have their cases looked at, if they knew of this incident and how it was mishandled.

“It’s not just a wee bit of money you get fined – I was looking at £120 fines for my wife’s car and mine.

“And on that day in North Berwick, there were definitely tickets getting issued that were not valid.”

The Glebe car park was a long-stay facility until the Covid lockdown last year, when it was changed to short-stay to facilitate parking for high street shoppers.

Having regularly left his vehicle in the car park, Mr Fraser said he was unaware of the restriction changes.

He added: “The signpost was completely obscured by a tree and then the council went back and cut down the branches the week after I told them I couldn’t see the sign, so they knew they were in the wrong.

“I appealed to the council about the £30 fine and, within a couple of weeks of me appealing, telling them their signpost was obscured, the branches were cut back – but they still wanted me to pay the fine.

“A lot of people might feel stung by this whole experience. They might just be like, well, let’s just go to Dunbar for our holidays this year.”

An East Lothian Council spokesperson said: “If someone feels they have been given a parking ticket incorrectly then they are able to challenge it. All information provided by the person challenging the ticket will be considered.”