A woman has been left seething after her local council escalated what she claims is an unjust parking fine to bailiffs. Kathryn James, a resident of Romford in east London, was informed by a debt collection agency that she owes £175 for an unpaid penalty from last year on Collier Row Road.

Despite appealing the charge on the basis that the first half-hour of parking on the road is free, Kathryn's plea fell on deaf ears. She explained that her husband had parked their car, registered under her name, for a quick shopping trip on April 19, 2024.

Kathryn insists that her husband inputted the registration details at the ticket machine to validate his free parking, only to return less than 30 minutes later to find a traffic warden issuing a fine.

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The 44 year old said: "He went with the traffic warden to the parking machine, put the registration number in again and it showed her the free parking. She took a picture of the screen and attached it to where they have to upload the evidence."

Despite this, Kathryn said the traffic warden told her husband he would still need to contest the fine as it had already been issued. Havering Council initially rejected this appeal, informing her husband that only the registered owner of the vehicle could lodge a complaint.

According to Kathryn, she then penned a letter to the local authority herself, but heard nothing back over the following 12 months. Havering Council has claimed that "there is no evidence that an attempt was made to register for a free parking session" or to challenge the parking ticket at the time.

Yet a photograph of the parking machine included with Kathryn's penalty notice appears to show that the motorist did secure a complimentary ticket on the day. The timestamp on the parking machine reads 1.13pm, four minutes after the fine was handed out.

The machine fails to display the time at which the driver registered for the free session. Kathryn was recently told that her case had been passed to bailiffs, and she now worries about being dragged to court over the charge.

She added: "What I can't stand is that they've got the evidence from their own system that this shouldn't have been issued. But now either I have to suck it up and pay something that's just been escalating financially, or I have to risk putting my principles on the line and getting a criminal conviction.

"It's absolutely disgusting. You would think they would review the evidence and work through to resolve that with people, rather than taking this punitive way forward."

A Havering Council spokesperson said that the local authority had rejected a recent request to appeal the fine. They clarified: "Following an out-of-time application, the reasons for not following the appeals process were subsequently refused. Therefore, the PCN still stands. Residents should ensure that they are properly registered for free parking to avoid a penalty charge."