FURIOUS Susan Bickerstaffe has slammed a parking attendant who gave her a fine for using the wrong ticket machine.

The civil servant found a £60 penalty notice slapped on her windscreen after parking in East Richardson Street, High Wycombe, last Saturday.

But Mrs Bickerstaffe, 46, of Ash Close, Walters Ash, who had bought a valid parking ticket, could not believe it when she saw why she had been fined.

She said: "When I got out of my car no parking pay-and-display ticket machine was in my vantage point. The only machines I could see were situated several hundred yards away."

Mrs Bickerstaffe ended up buying a ticket from a machine in nearby Westbourne Street for the same price as a ticket would have cost her in East Richardson Street where she had parked.

She says she had no idea that tickets were only valid if bought from the street where motorists actually park their cars and claims the parking signs are unclear.

"I'm very angry about this. I haven't spoken to anybody who knew these regulations applied. I know you can't park in another area if the tariff is different but the tariff was the same. It's a ludicrous rule really."

Mrs Bickerstaffe has now paid her fine but she has written a letter of complaint to Sureway Parking Services Ltd, the company which runs High Wycombe's Positive Parking scheme for Buckinghamshire County Council.

She added: "Until now, my husband and I have wholeheartedly supported the Positive Parking Scheme. However, we consider the terms and conditions regarding the location of payment to be petty, bureaucratic and unfair."

A spokesman for Sureway Parking Ltd said: "We always try to promote the issue that motorists should go to the nearest ticket machine to their vehicle, but we are aware that there are issues that need to be addressed.

"We will look into the issue of Mrs Bickerstaffe on her behalf."