A man who 'briefly stopped outside a kebab shop' and received a hefty parking fine has won his appeal and no longer has to pay.

Edward Moore has given the following advice to others who may find themselves in the same situation.

He said that they shouldn’t let the council bully them into paying without appeal if they believe they have done nothing wrong.

“It's much better to make an example of the council until they correct their behaviour,” he said.

Mr Moore and his wife Helena Kennedy regularly return to Ms Kennedy’s hometown of Reading to visit her elderly mother.

Last November they visited on a Friday night and dropped by the Hala Lebanese takeaway on Wokingham Road.

The pair said they parked on the pavement to await one of the shop's parking spaces to become vacant and Mr Moore went in to order the takeaway before the couple drove off then drove off.

A fortnight later the pair received a letter from Reading Borough Council (RBC) for 'stopping on a red route or clearway'.

Mr Moore said: “Surely stopping off on the road or the pavement is allowed, especially when trying to park? I submitted my representation that there has been a 'procedural impropriety' when interpreting the photo, that I'm not on a red route.”

At the start of this month February 2024, He received a response in which RBC stated that the area where the couple "parked" was subject to a 'No Stopping Restriction' and 'this was clearly indicated by the double red lines marked on the roadside'. Adding 'the public have a right of way on foot over this section of the Highway and therefore the PCN was correctly issued'.

“So, is waiting off-road by a parking space for it to become free now an offence? I hope not,” Mr Moore said.

Motivated by a sense of injustice, and keen to stop this happening to others, Mr Moore and his wife appealed to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

Mr Moore said that he knew that if the appeal failed the charge would double to £70, but common sense needed to prevail.

This time, knowing that the council class "parking ON a Red Route" as being on the pavement, he changed his defence to explain there are marked parking spaces on the pavement.

“Just over a week later, we received the excellent news that the council will not contest the appeal. The council lost, we won,” Mr Moore said

“Their response does say, "the decision made in this instance does not set a precedent for future PCNs that may be issued.”

A spokesperson for Reading Borough Council said that stopping on red routes is prohibited under the Traffic Management Act 2004 except in designated parking bays.

They said “We would also emphasise the red lines on a designated red route apply from the centre of the carriageway to the edge of the property, which includes pavements and verges, which is additionally stipulated in the Highway Code.”