ON January 5 I parked my car on Duke Street, Blackburn, as I had done on numerous occasions. I put my 70p in the machine, put the ticket in my windscreen and went off to lunch.

On my return I was horrified to discover that I had been issued with a £30 penalty ticket. Apparently the charge had gone up that day to 90p.

To me, common sense would indicate that I had intended to pay for an hour, so surely a warning on the windscreen making me aware of the increase would have been appropriate.

I wrote a letter to say I thought that the £30 fine was unfair (as was the nearly 30 per cent increase) and that on the day of the rise I even enclosed the missing 20p.

I subsequently received a letter saying that they found no grounds to cancel the fine.

I'm sure other people must have missed the notice as I had done.

Had I wanted to park for half an hour I would have paid 40p not 70p. I feel it unlikely that someone would try and rob them of 20p so why rob me of £30?

To add insult to injury they didn't even return my 20p so I actually ended up paying the full 90p and still had to pay a £30 fine.

CHARLES HOPWOOD, Tintagel Close, Feniscowles, Blackburn.