{"id":369939,"date":"2025-08-24T14:36:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T14:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/369939\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T14:36:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T14:36:16","slug":"man-slams-vindictive-parking-wardens-in-row-over-50-year-old-double-yellow-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/369939\/","title":{"rendered":"Man slams ‘vindictive’ parking wardens in row over 50 year old double yellow lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wirral Council has accused Shaun Marnell’s business of having a \u201ccomplete disregard\u201d for the law<\/p>\n

09:59, 24 Aug 2025Updated 09:59, 24 Aug 2025<\/p>\n

\"ShaunShaun Marnell has criticised Wirral Council after it repainted double yellow lines on an industrial estate(Image: Copyright Unknown)<\/p>\n

Wirral Council has accused a business of having \u201ccomplete disregard\u201d for the law after people hit out at \u201cvindictive\u201d parking wardens. Drivers on a Moreton<\/a> industrial estate have been fined for parking on double yellow lines that have been there for more than 50 years.<\/p>\n

Shaun Marnell runs an electric vehicle charging<\/a> business on Tarran Way South in Moreton<\/a> on the Tarran Industrial Estate. The business operates several rapid chargers both on his premises as well as on the public highway.<\/p>\n

These electric vehicle charging points<\/a> are understood to have been in place for several years but drivers have recently started being fined after double yellow lines were repainted across the entire estate. These have long been in place but Google Street View images show some of the lines faded completely in recent years.<\/p>\n

Following the fines, Mr Marnell approached the ECHO<\/a> to complain and has been supported by his councillor Colin Baldwin. He and others thought the lines were no longer in force.<\/p>\n

However Wirral<\/a> Council said the lines have been in place for at least 50 years and the electric vehicle charging points were actually installed without permission. Wirral Council<\/a> said it had asked the business to remove the illegal installations.<\/p>\n

Mr Marnell said he\u2019d been asked by the council to remove them and insisted they had had no complaints from the public since they\u2019d been installed. He questioned the need to seek permission as he claimed this was not needed when he installed them.<\/p>\n

He wants the council to approve a licence for the chargers and provide parking spaces on the road to show \u201cit\u2019s a charging station and nothing else can park there.\u201d He told the ECHO<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s important that we get this resolved straight away,\u201d adding: \u201cGive the situation the respect it deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Harding, who does airport transfers, accused the council of \u201cbeing a law unto themselves,\u201d adding: \u201cThey are just making it impossible, especially if we can\u2019t use the chargers\u2019 in the road. I have been coming here for two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KarlKarl Woolfall said he was worried every time he parked his car on the highway(Image: Copyright Unknown)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile taxi driver Karl Woolfall said a fine would impact his business and worried every time he parked up to charge his vehicle. He said: \u201cIt\u2019s bonkers for want of a better word. It\u2019s absolutely bonkers what they are doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone is trying to improve stuff and they are putting obstacles in the way that do not need to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Newbury, who is operations manager for environmentally-friendly taxi firm Maize Transport, said the double yellow lines and the enforcement of them by the local authority was \u201cexcessively frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told the ECHO<\/a>: \u201cI do not understand why they are here every day. They are not checking them every day everywhere else. It strikes me as a bit vindictive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get support from one part of the council and get it taken away from another. I do not understand it. In my eyes, we are ticking the boxes the government want, the community want. We are ticking the boxes for a green future.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless they are going to live here, we are going to do our damnedest to avoid them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WirralWirral Council was criticised over its approach to the double yellow lines(Image: Copyright Unknown)<\/p>\n

Speaking to the ECHO<\/a>, Cllr Baldwin criticised the fact the council didn\u2019t ask people for their opinion. Legally councils do not have to consult if repainting lines.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIf they just listened to people and used a little bit of common sense on things, everybody would be happy but they just get people\u2019s backs up all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Wirral Council spokesperson said: \u201cLocal authorities have a wide range of statutory duties covered by legislation which are there, in many cases, to ensure the safety of all residents. These include controlling what items or pieces of equipment can be installed on the public highway and enforcing parking restrictions in locations where they are deemed necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case it seems as though there has been a complete disregard for those laws. Firstly, the parking restrictions on the road in this location have been in place for at least 50 years, they are not new \u2013 the recent repainting of the yellow lines was to refresh them in areas where they had faded. It is simply untrue to suggest they are new and weren\u2019t there and visible previously and as the restrictions aren\u2019t new, no public consultation was necessary to repaint the lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith regard to the EV charging points, a number of these were installed on and across the public footway in order that vehicles \u2013 primarily taxis \u2013 could be charged while parked on the yellow lines. Neither planning permission, nor consent to install equipment on the public highway, was in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, we wrote to the business to require them to remove just the EV charging points that were installed illegally on the street and reinstate the highway. If they did not comply, the council would arrange to do it and charge the cost back to the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWirral Council is committed to working with colleagues in the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to significantly increase the number of electric charging stations in the borough and we recently consulted with residents on ideas for where best these could be located. Given the location of this business and the restrictions within the industrial estate, this would not be considered an appropriate place for roadside EV charging points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Marnell in response said: \u201cThere needs to be people like me who put their head above the parapet to test these things because you just never get anywhere. I can\u2019t change that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much red tape and nothing gets done. I feel like we had to. I have done everything I can to put them legally in the ground. I have been transparent with them and I have been trying.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wirral Council has accused Shaun Marnell’s business of having a \u201ccomplete disregard\u201d for the law 09:59, 24 Aug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,51851,285,16,15,8881,9313],"class_list":{"0":"post-369939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-moreton","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wirral","17":"tag-wirral-council"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115084249420705455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}