BROMLEY Council has apologised for issuing a parking ticket in a road where there was no parking meter.

Daren Pool, of Seymour Drive, Bromley Common, parked his car in Elmfield Road, near Bromley South station, on April 12, before catching a train to London for a business meeting.

When he returned at around midday he found he had been issued with parking ticket.

The 37-year-old said: "The reason I didn't buy a ticket is because there was no meter there.

"There is a sign there saying pay at meter and then an arrow pointing to the right.

"Where there is supposed to be a meter there is just a stump.

"When I got back I saw I'd been issued with a ticket. I was really annoyed."

Mr Pool wrote to the council on April 29, but didn't receive a reply until June 11 when the council informed him they had cancelled the ticket and apologised for the inconvenience caused.

He added: "Knowing they are issuing tickets incorrectly, it is just not right.

"It's incompetent. All they have to do is do an honest job and have some common sense and stop wasting the public's time.

"It is our time and expense when they do it, and people are having a hard enough time as it is at the moment.

"To top it off they take months to reply when we have 14 days to respond.

"They have now removed the stump and put a sign there saying you have to go to another meter, 20 or 30 yards away, and pay there."

A council spokesperson said: "Of course tickets are occasionally issued incorrectly.

"When they are, and when appealed, they do get cancelled as we've seen in this instance.

"It goes to show that the two stage appeal system works, as well reinforcing the Council’s oft offered advice to residents that they should always consider doing so where they feel they have been harshly treated."