Families soaking up the sun at Sandy Lane Aqua Park over the past few days had their fun ruined after being slapped with parking tickets.
Motorists who parked on a grass verge on Sandy Lane on Friday (April 10) and Tuesday (April 14) to use the park facilities returned to their cars to find they had been issued with penalty charge notices – which have now been revoked in a U-turn decision by Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC).
The popular water park opened for the season on April 2 and has already seen hundreds of people flock there over the school holidays.
Liz Nicholls, from Boughton, went to the park with her family at about 12.30pm on Tuesday and parked on the grass verge.
She said: “I have been going there for the past nine years and I always park there because there is never enough room in the car park, it’s just too small.
“There are no signs saying do not park there.
“It has never been an issue before and there are no residents on that stretch of the road.”
Liz said that a traffic warden turned up and started issuing tickets, explaining that you can’t park past the double yellow lines.
“It’s a shame because the water park is one of the only free things to do in Chester, especially on a nice day, but if you can’t park your car there then it isn’t really that accessible” she added.
But CWaC has now decided to rescind the penalty charge notices on the grounds that the vehicles weren’t ‘fully’ contravening parking restrictions.
A council spokeswoman said: “A civil enforcement officer was sent to Sandy Lane as we had received a high level of complaints regarding cars parked illegally.
“A number of vehicles received penalty charge notices however these have now been cancelled following further consideration, as it was decided they were not fully parked in contravention of the double yellow line restrictions as indicated in the Highway Code.
“Vehicles parked entirely or partly on or over the pavement behind a double or single yellow line could receive a penalty charge notice.”
