I WAS not surprised to read of the ridiculous parking price hike by Blackburn with Darwen Council.

In the early part of 2004 I was sitting an exam at the local college, whilst in the exam my parking ticket, for the Waves car park, expired.

On returning to my car I found a parking ticket slapped on my windscreen.

This was fair enough, I had been there longer than I should and incurred the relevant punishment.

I read the ticket and was relieved to find that if I paid a lesser charge of £10 at one of the machines I would avoid a much bigger fine.

So I tramped off into town to find somewhere that could give me 10 £1 coins and then stood there inserting the money into the meter, like some gambling addict, feeding coin after coin into a one-armed bandit, all because Blackburn with Darwen Council was too cheap to provide a machine that would accept notes I followed the instructions and posted the receipt to the relevant section at the town hall.

However, the real hammer blow was when I received a bill some time later for the full amount.

I called the council, obviously incensed about this decision, only to be told that the council had no evidence of me posting my receipt to them, therefore I had to pay the amount in full. The people I dealt with were rude and unsympathetic.

I am only glad I live in Hyndburn and as such do not pay anything to Blackburn with Darwen Council.

PAUL ANTHONY, Spring Avenue, Great Harwood.