PRESSURE is mounting on the council after another wave of motorists fell foul of a controversial parking system which requires them to make payments over the phone if a ticket machine is not working.

People leaving their cars in Grove Park car park in Wanstead have to ring an automated phone line to make a credit card payment when the machine is out of order.

Last month the Guardian reported that people were criticising the RingGo system as being unsuitable for lots of motorists, particularly the elderly who might not have a credit card or mobile phone to pay for parking.

Now another group of drivers who were fined have slammed the system, which was introduced across the borough late last year, and said they were caught out because the information on the machine was not clear.

Dolly Charna, 45, from Mount Pleasant Road in Chigwell, drove to Wanstead with her friend Nasreen Mohammed yesterday lunchtime and arrived at at around 1:30pm.

She said: “We were only gone about half an hour, we only went into one shop. But when we came back we saw we'd been given a ticket.

“I called up the company but you don't know who you're talking to, they're just someone in an office somewhere. The woman said I had to write a letter, which I posted this morning.

“I think the fine was about £80 or something but I didn't even look at the ticket, I was so fuming.”

Mrs Charna added that the alternative system of making credit card payments over the phone when the machine was out of order was inconvenient and that the instructions on the machine are not clear.

She said: “If you have to phone a number if the machine's broken then it should be a lot clearer. And what if you've not got a credit card? What if you've not got a mobile phone?

“It's all about money, they don't care. It's not fair on the public.”

Mrs Mohammed, 51, of Tomswood Road in Chigwell, said: “Usually when we park there and the machine isn't working we just put a note in our window saying 'machine out of order', and it's fine.

“But when we came back we saw we'd been given a ticket. There were lots of other cars with notes in their windows and not all of them had tickets.”

Helen Lowe, 30, used to live in Wanstead and travels from her home in Peckham to visit the High Street around once a week.

Miss Lowe and her partner Robert Freeman parked in the car park at 12:30pm and returned about an hour later to find they have been given a ticket.

She said: “As we both left the car park my partner said he was suspicious about a parking warden he saw walking towards the car park, but I thought 'Surely not' because the machine's not working so there's nothing we can do.

“My partner and I are both graphic designers and the information graphic is really poor.

“It was only when we got back that we saw that, below the ticketing machine, half-hidden in a bush, there's this A4 sheet with a notice about ringing the number. It was so weather-beaten and very unclear.”

“I'm going to write to them today. I'm not paying it.”

A spokeswoman for Redbridge Council said: "The Council regularly inspects the pay and display machine in this car park and undertake any necessary repairs, replacement of ticket rolls etc., without delay. Consequently it is generally available for motorists to use. An alternative payment method, RingGo, has been introduced in all our car parks to provide motorists with payment options and to help on the few occasions when the pay & display machine is out of order.

"Signage has been provided in all car parks advising of this service but it has been removed from this particular car park on a number of occasions by persons unknown.

"Replacement signs are displayed as soon as we become aware of the removal of the signs. We have ordered more permanent signs to prevent further disappearances, these will be erected as soon as possible.