WHEN traffic wardens descended on Woodville Road, Leytonstone, parking tickets were littered on properly parked cars.

Peter Holbrook's was issued as he was climbing Ayers Rock on the other side of the world.

He left his car parked outside his home in Woodville Road where there were no restrictions until double yellow lines were painted around it.

Mr Holbrook, 35, director of the Sunlight Development Trust charity, was visiting his sister in Australia for a month and returned to find the freshly painted yellow lines had landed him with an £80 fine.

When he called the council to contest the ticket he was told he would have to appeal in the usual way, by writing a letter, taking photographs and building a case.

He said: "I thought it was obvious. They got paint on the underside of my car because they got so close to the front wheels, and they have not even connected the yellow lines yet.

"I don't know whether the traffic wardens are on profit-related pay or not, but they certainly will issue a ticket at any opportunity and are very unwilling to engage with you in the street.

"All my neighbours came out in support, they had all witnessed it.

"I think people are just fed up with more and more parking restrictions and the way they are enforced.

"I would like them to take a more common sense approach to it, but if they can get people to pay the fines they will make a profit."

A Waltham Forest Council spokesman said: "The ticket has been cancelled as the motorist obviously was not aware new lines were being laid in the area and parked there in good faith."

Mr Holbrook's neighbour, Adam Kossoff, 45, has a resident's permit to park outside his home at the other end of Woodville Road, yet his car was clamped by traffic wardens on Tuesday, May 15.

He said: "I had stopped at home that morning and within half an hour they had put a ticket on the car and clamped it.

"The traffic warden said the parking permit was for the wrong zone and it was therefore parked illegally."

Mr Kossoff has lived in Woodville Road for six years and purchased the parking permit in January.

He said: "I have never had a problem with it before and had a long argument with them but they wouldn't shift."

The local authority confirmed the ticket was a mistake, quashed the £105 fine and removed the clamp free of charge.