Homeless volunteer helper, Simon Williams, has been left fuming after Salford Council refused to rescind a parking ticket slapped onto his car on Boxing Day while escorting homeless people to a night shelter at Lancaster House, on Lancaster Road in Eccles.
Simon, together with other volunteers, spent the whole festive season delivering food parcels and helping homeless people in Salford as part of the Coffee4Craig project (see previous Salford Star article – click here).
"I parked up outside Lancaster House on Boxing Day to take the homeless into Lancaster House because you always have to make sure that they're safe, but in the time it took me to get from my car to the house, get them signed in and get back I'd got a ticket" Simon recalls "I was only there three minutes and it was on Boxing Day, a bank holiday on a single yellow line. It's a joke.
"We're there trying to help people as a non-profit organisation that's got no money at all, and when I told all this to the traffic warden and they just smirked and told me to appeal" he says.
Simon duly appealed to Salford Council explaining the situation but he got a letter yesterday telling him that the £35 fine will not be dropped... "They are saying they can't revoke it because I wasn't stood next to the vehicle - but I couldn't stand next to the vehicle because I had to take the homeless people inside to make sure they were secure for safety reasons" he explains.
When told about the controversy surrounding the Salford Mayor's camper van being parked without a visible permit in a staff car park for over a month (see here), Simon shrugs, "It seems to me if you help people you get punished by the Council , if you're the Mayor you can park where you want. I think they have double standards.
"I think they've got serious issues" he adds "You're out there helping the homeless and all they're doing is penalising you. It's Salford Council trying to line their pockets at the expense of the poor yet again..."
The Council's mean spirited attitude contrasts with that a of a local resident who, after hearing about the parking ticket, gave her parking pass to Coffee4Craig
Main photo shows Risha Lancaster, co-founder of Coffee4Craig, next to the car slapped with a parking ticket
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