Environment was expecting motorists parking wrongly in the small-car spaces at North Beach initially to be given advisory tickets but Lara Turner, pictured with father Barry Jameson, got a £30 fixed penalty for parking her 4.03 metre – or 13ft 3in. – long Peugeot 207 in a 3.6-metre bay. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0903571)

Some were unaware that nearly 40 newly-marked spaces in the 10-hour zone were for small cars and returned to find tickets on their vehicles.

The Environment Department, which brought in the change, said that warning tickets should have been issued initially.

But Lara Turner got a £30 fixed penalty notice for leaving her Peugeot 207 in one of the spaces because it is more than 3.6 metres long.

‘How many people actually know how long their car is? asked her father, Barry Jameson.

‘It’s a con to get people to pay for an offence when the markings are not laid out properly.

‘I can understand why they want to encourage the use of smaller cars but there should be more notification and anyone who has been issued with a ticket so far should have it cancelled.’

Inspector Trevor Coleman said parking controllers had been warning drivers of the new scheme on Monday.

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