Residents caught out by match changes (From Watford Observer)

Residents caught out by match changes

5:20pm Thursday 8th January 2004

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THE start of 2004 was welcomed reluctantly by residents forced to pay parking fines after a rugby match was re-scheduled without warning.

Relatives and guests of residents in Kensington Avenue, Watford, awoke on New Year's Day to find they had been fined for failing to display their visitor vouchers on the morning of the Saracens rugby match.

The game had not previously been scheduled for that day, leaving residents no time to tell visitors they should display the correct permits.

They were each fined £30 for parking there on a match day.

Mr Tom Federico, who has elderly parents living on the avenue, attacked the council for their "money making" tactics when he found he had been issued a ticket.

He said: "At Christmas and New Year you want to be with your family, but what they are saying is you have to double check every time you want to do that.

"It's disgusting."

Even though the Parking Shop issues a list of all the scheduled matches, Mr Federico believes this one was not on it.

A spokesman for the council said: "Saracens can set up fixtures and change fixtures and this is out of the council's control.

"There is a hotline number residents are aware of to find out if there are matches, and it's something residents are responsible for."

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