I HAVE always enjoyed visiting Blackburn with its fine array of shops and local amenities.

But I would urge people to take care when parking in the town, otherwise their visit may well be turned sour.

I relate my own experience so that others may learn of the advantages of keeping a roll of adhesive tape in the car.

I parked outside Waves in a pay and display car park.

After buying the non-adhesive ticket, I displayed it on the car dashboard and so was surprised to find, on return, a penalty notice fixed to the windscreen.

The rather flimsy pay and display ticket had slipped down in a gap between windscreen and dashboard.

My real concern however, is with the difficulty one has in actually discussing the matter with a person in authority.

Feeling unfairly penalised, I sought a hearing in the Blackburn with Darwen Council office, since they were the enforcing body.

I was informed that staff dealing with fixed penalty notices were "upstairs and unable to come down."

Suspecting that this was due to some physical weakness, I offered to make the effort of climbing the stairs.

This was not the case: appeals could only be made in writing.

Even with evidence of the pay and display ticket covering the period of alleged contravention, my appeal was unsuccessful and the parking services manager was "unable to enter into further correspondence."

There seems to be a contradiction in describing council workers as "public servants," although their salaries are paid from public taxation, they appear to have extremely limited accountability in that they don't even need to communicate with the public they "serve."

The moral is, if using Blackburn pay and display car parks or street parking, most tickets are not self-adhesive, so keep a roll of tape in the car and stick your ticket to the windscreen.

DR NICK CLARKE, Rawtenstall.