PARKING bosses have hit back, after being accused of encouraging drink-driving in York by booking vehicles left in car parks overnight.

Angry motorist Chris Grosvenor said his responsible decision to avoid any risk of drink-driving, by leaving his car and getting a taxi home after a night out in York, had cost him £50.

He said he had returned to the vehicle in a car park near Lords Mayor's Walk at just after 9am on Monday to find a parking ticket on the windscreen.

"This was very annoying," he said.

"We arrived at the car park just after 9am, before any shops or attractions had opened, as it was a Bank Holiday.

"The time of issue of the ticket was 8.30am.

"The shortest time you can get a ticket for this car park is one hour, so why was the traffic warden inspecting the car park 30 minutes after it 'officially' opened?

"The only 'logical' explanation, that will never be admitted, is to catch out all the people who left their cars from the night before - people like me, who instead of drink-driving, decide to leave the car and get a taxi - the law-abiding motorist that time after time gets picked on."

Mr Grosvenor, who lives near Pocklington, said he had paid about £20 for a taxi back home and would have to pay another £30 for the parking ticket. "So in the future what will happen?" he asked.

"In the same situation, would I drink-drive?

"I would like to think not, but I don't know.

"If I think I 'might' be okay to drive (which means I'm not) I might be tempted to drive home as I don't want another parking ticket.

"This worries me. How many people in York get trapped by this 'money-making' scheme?"

He claimed the council was a "greedy, uncaring and irresponsible regime".

He said: "Surely, a forward thinking council should provide areas for drivers to park instead of drink-driving, or at least have a tolerance the next day, to give people the chance to collect their cars - I don't think that sounds unreasonable!"

But a council spokeswoman said today that overnight parking ran from 6pm until 8am the following morning, and defended its attendants' actions.

"The council's parking enforcement officers patrol car parks from 8am every morning and are legally entitled to give penalty charge notices to any vehicle that is not showing a valid ticket," she said.

"Although they usually give drivers a few minutes' grace after the ticket expires, this is much less than 30 minutes."

She added that tickets had the expiry time printed on them, and motorists could also use the mobile phone payment system if they could not get back to the car park in time.

Updated: 09:48 Friday, May 05, 2006