A man who has lived in the borough all his life has spoken of how upset he is at the council’s ‘money grabbing’ tactics over what he says was a trivial parking ticket which he had to take to appeal to see cancelled.

Ronnie Mackenzie, 62, of Brettenham Road in Walthamstow, had a £55 ticket issued for pulling over outside a school after he stopped briefly to let a car past, the driver of which was flashing its lights at him.

He said the council told him that if they had known the circumstances they would have cancelled the ticket, but he ended up having to attend a personal hearing in Angel, knowing that if his appeal lost the fine would be doubled.

The council say Mr Mackenzie’s first letter to them failed to include the details about the vehicle’s flashing lights, which were later used at the appeal to cancel the ticket, and that by the time these details were stated the appeal process had to run its course.

Mr Mackenzie said: “The whole thing is just so trivial.

“If they can squeeze you to get two pence out of you they will.

“Even if I sent the full explanation in a second letter surely they could’ve seen that and cancelled the ticket, but they didn’t bother.”

The council also mistakenly sent the details of another person’s court case to Mr Mackenzie as part of his appeal package, in a worrying move for personal privacy.

The council apologised to Mr Mackenzie earlier this month over what they say was an innocent and regrettable mistake.

He said he felt the council had ignored him until the case went to appeal.

Mr Mackenzie was informed of the decision to cancel the ticket on May 8, around four months after his correspondence with the council began.

A council spokesman said it was not clear why Mr Mackenzie did not state the full details in his initial letter, and when he did so the adjudicator appeal had already been made so we had to let that run its course.