An Altona Meadows pensioner has described Maribyrnong’s parking inspectors as “heartless” after he was fined while volunteering for a Victoria University research session which ran over time.
Robert McNish and his wife, aged in their late 80s, signed up as volunteers for research into healthy ageing conducted at the university’s Footscray campus.
He paid for two hours’ parking in a disability space at the Henry Turner Memorial Reserve car park.
After the one-and-a-half-hour session ran overtime, Mr McNish returned to his car 16 minutes late to find an infringement ticket for $72 stuck to the windshield.
He wrote to the council pleading for “flexibility and leniency” but received a reply informing him the fine would not be withdrawn.
“They were very heartless, coming down and sticking to the letter of the law,” he said. “It’s not as though there was any shortage of parking; we weren’t denying anybody the space to park there.
“It was a dreadfully inclement day and I’d have got soaked had I taken the university parking pass and walked – even though I have a heart condition – back down to the car in the rain just to pop it there.
“It’s not the fine itself, it’s the principle of it that disturbed me. [My wife and I] were trying to perform a community service in a voluntary capacity and yet some nitpicking attendant undertakes what I believe to be little more than a revenue-raising action.”
Asked to comment on Mr McNish’s fine, Maribyrnong council director Nigel Higgins said high-demand car parks near Victoria University were managed to ensure equitable parking supply.
He said drivers had the right to appeal an infringement on the grounds of special circumstances.
