A MAN volunteering at a Winchester care home must pay an “extremely harsh” parking fine– and the city council will not let him off the hook.

Jamie Kershaw has been volunteering at Cambria House during lockdown and usually left his car in Durngate car park.

But when the shared permit was lost by one of his colleagues, he parked outside the nursing home in St Peter’s Street.

After his shift he found a ticket on his windshield.

“I know that by the letter of the law, I was in the wrong,” said Mr Kershaw. “Under the circumstances however, it’s seems extremely harsh to uphold the reprimand; I was trying to put something back into the community by helping in a care home during what is probably the biggest crisis the sector has ever faced.

“I was parked directly outside said care home with a note in the windscreen – ordinarily, I would have displayed a parking permit, but the care home had lost these.

“Despite now knowing all of this information, the council still think that I deserve to be penalised. A little mean.”

He added that the traffic warden told him Durngate was free on the day.

“With this knowledge, I immediately moved my car there. Again, the warden said that she would make a note to explain this on the system.

“I had already asked the care home manager to apply for a copy of the permit for Durngate to avoid me having to pay every day.

“Until the new permit arrives, I will of course park in the car park and just pay each day to avoid a repeat.”

Winchester City Council parking services manager Scott MacBrayne has since responded to Mr Kershaw.

He told him: "Although your current supporting work with the care home is admirable, your vehicle was parked on a single yellow line at a time when parking was restricted.

"Upon challenging the Penalty Charge Notice there was due consideration as to your explanation and mitigation but grounds for cancellation were not met."