Dozens fined at charity event in aid of cancer

FUNDRAISERS 'ASTOUNDED' TO GET PARKING TICKETS

- WILLIAM TELFORD

MORE than 40 motorists received £50 parking fines while attending a Plymouth charity event aimed at raising cash to fight cancer.

Drivers were astounded when they returned to their vehicles at the end of the ‘Plymouth Pretty Muddy 5k’ event in Central Park and found they had been slapped with a ticket.

The event, last Sunday, attracted a huge crowd and motorists said car parks around the Life Centre quickly filled up. They said drivers had therefore parked on grass verges.

But when they returned to their vehicles after the Cancer Research UK event they found they had been fined. Plymouth City Council stressed the vehicles had not parked in designated bays and caused an obstruction and a possible danger to the public.

Megan Reynolds, from Eggbuckland, was among those taking part in the event and appealed to the council to rip up the tickets as a goodwill gesture, considering so many people had been trying to raise cash for a good cause.

She travelled to Central Park with a friend, who received a ticket when she parked her car partly on a grass verge.

Miss Reynolds, a law student, said: “The Plymouth Argyle car park was packed, there were no spaces, and the Life Centre was taken up as well. We parked in the Life Centre car park on a little grass verge.