Preschool Christmas party ends in parking tickets for dozens of families

DOES the spirit of Christmas exist? Not at this council where a parking inspector Grinch fined more than a dozen families celebrating a preschool Christmas party.

EVEN Santa couldn’t escape the wrath of a parking inspector Grinch who fined more than a dozen families celebrating a preschool Christmas party in Melbourne’s east today.

Shortly after enjoying a short concert and graduation ceremony at Goodstart Early Learning in Doncaster East, parents returned to their cars to find someone had left an unwanted gift — a $91 parking fine.

Goodstart Early Learning Doncaster East 2IC Anne Pugh said staff and parents were “furious” about the council’s lack of festive spirit.

“I’ve been here for 20 years and this has never happened before — it leaves a very sour taste,” she said.

“How mean is this? It doesn’t say a lot about the council’s Christmas spirit.”

Ms Pugh said the centre’s small car park was unable to accommodate the large number of families attending the Christmas party and some parents had parked on the adjacent median strip running along Andersons Creek Rd.

“They weren’t impeding any traffic flow,” she said.

Ms Pugh said even Santa, who had stopped by to entertain the children ahead of his big journey on December 25, received a fine.

“We’re all so upset,” Ms Pugh said.

“The thing that parents are going to remember when they go home is the fact they’ve all been booked.”

Manningham City Council’s planning and environment director Teresa Dominik confirmed 18 people had been reported for “breaches of the road rules”.

“The officer was responding to a complaint from neighbours and recorded vehicles that were illegally parked with a variety of infringements,” she said.

Ms Dominik said the officer had not investigated why people had parked on the strip before issuing fines.

Asked if the council would consider waiving the fines in the spirit of Christmas, Ms Dominik said any driver who received a notice was entitled to make a written application to have the officer’s decision internally reviewed.