Penrith nurse scores win over council on unfair parking fine
A Penrith nurse is using her story as an example for the rest of the community after she fought an unfair parking fine and won.
A Penrith nurse is urging the community to fight back against unfair parking fines.
In December, Kristy Bennett received a parking fine after parking for only 20 minutes in a two hour space at Edwards St car park.
She attempted to resolve the issue with the parking ranger, but was told she would have to file an official dispute with council.
This didn’t solve anything, as her dispute was rejected and the 27-year-old was told she would have to fight the matter in court.
Refusing to accept that option, Ms Bennett contacted the security company in an attempt to have the $110 fine revoked outside of court.
The tactic worked with council eventually, cancelling the fine and the ranger even phoning Ms Bennett to apologise for the inconvenience.
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Despite the situation being resolved Ms Bennett still wants to inform the community not to just accept a parking fine they feel is unjustified.
“I just want to make sure that people in the community are aware that they do have to option to take unfair fines to court and they can fight back,” Ms Bennett said.
“If I hadn’t emailed the security company I don’t think I would have gotten off the fine and I would have faced the nightmare of taking it to court.”
A council spokesman said the parking sensors are only one tool being used to manage parking compliance in Penrith, but gave no comment on if council plans to address the complaints regarding parking sensors.
“Parking sensors are a strategic planning tool that can provide insights to inform future parking strategies and make improvements across a City,” the spokesman said.
“Penrith has been trialling sensors in Edwards Place car park since 2015 and during this time rangers have continued to use existing compliance methods including chalking tyres.”
Ms Bennett believes this is not a one off and that there is a genuine fault with the parking sensors at Edwards car park. Her solution is to remove the cause of the problem.
“If the sensors are faulty and there are problems and I think if the sensors aren’t 100 per cent accurate they shouldn’t be there.
“The issue is how many people is this happening to and the sensors are obviously not accurate.”
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