Woman slapped with $93 for parking in her own driveway
A WOMAN in Melbourne has been slapped with a $93 fine for parking in the same spot she has been using for 24 years.
A MELBOURNE woman has been issued a $93 fine for parking in her driveway, in the same spot she has been leaving her car for the past twenty-four years.
Raelene Zammit received the fine for parking her car in the driveway of her Hillside home where it was “blocking the footpath but not blocking access” according to Neil Mitchell on Melbourne radio station 3AW.
Zammit said that she had no idea that she had been parking illegally for all these years and sent letter calling for a review of the fine.
“I got a very prompt reply that they’ve reviewed it and as per the regulation Road Safety Access 2009 we’re not to be parking over the footpath,” she said.
“The response basically said no further discussion will be entered in to and if we don’t pay the fine it will go to the magistrate’s court.”
Zammit said was frustrated that no one at the council would discuss it further it with her and that if she lets the issue go to the Magistrates’ Court it could result in additional charges on top of her fine.
“The thing that bothers me … it’s not the 93 dollars, it’s not the fact that I’ve been doing it for 24 years unknowingly, it’s the fact that the council do not talk to the people within their community,” she said on the phone to Mitchell.
The Melbourne woman said she thought the lack of communication between her and the council has escalated the situation to where it is now and feels that she could have first been given a warning that what she was doing was illegal before being handed a fine.
When asked if she is planning on paying the fine she said she would because “common sense will have to prevail”.
“I have sent a subsequent email indicating that I think that it is wrong that they don’t talk to the people within their community,” she said.