I was fined £273 after being FORCED to drive just 100m into different zone as I dropped my kids at school… I'm furious
A DAD has told how he was slapped with a £273 fine when picking up his kids from school.
Justin Clifford says roadworks forced him to drive his van 100metres into Bath’s Clean Air Zone which usually has a daily charge of £9.
The dad-of-two is now fuming at the council – he believes the charge was "really unfair".
He told Somerset Live: "I was taking my children to school. They go to Oldfield Park Infants and normally I go by Twerton high street. However, in March last year, there were roadworks at the Arches, so I had to go a different way.
"I went up Shophouse Road and along Moorland Road, before turning down Brougham Hayes. None of that route is in the zone, except for a tiny little part at the bottom of Brougham Hayes.
"I had to turn left there, onto the Lower Bristol Road, and I was in the zone for all of 20 seconds, then I came back out. I used to be a chimney sweep and stove installer, so I still have the van from that and my son is autistic so it's a lot easier to drive him to school."
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A week later he received a fine of £60 plus the £9 charge – which he believes "seemed really unfair".
But he then moved house and “forgot all about the charge” until he received another letter.
He explained: "A fine for £273 arrived. I was pretty angry and I didn't want to pay it, but in the end, I had to, because I didn't want bailiffs turning up at my door.
"I think it's ridiculous because whoever designed the map didn't do it properly. Why is this tiny patch at the bottom of Brougham Hayes in the zone?
"It doesn't make sense. It's the same with the Sainsbury's petrol station – it's in the zone, so I can't shop there.
"As well as that, I work with a guy whose van is older than mine and he was meant to be getting a grant to buy a new one, but then the council ran out of money, so now his van is exempt. How can it be one rule for him and another for me?"
It comes as The Sun last week revealed a motorists clocked up more than £117,000 of parking fines in just over a year.
The rogue Honda driver was given 588 tickets between December 2020 and March 2022.
It equates to almost £200 a ticket — with penalties increasing when they are not paid promptly.
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The fines — thought to be a British record — were logged in North London by Islington Council which said it was chasing the driver for payment.
They were the costliest collection of fines for a single driver for breaching traffic rules last year, according to figures released by councils.
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