A MOTORIST has accused road bosses of trying to cover their tracks by painting double yellow lines on a layby where she was fined for parking.

Cathy Bessant, 55, of Camper Mews, Southend, was given a parking ticket when she left her car in the layby at Bloomsbury Court, in South Woodham Ferrers, even though there were no double yellow lines on it.

She appealed the fine, given by the South Essex Parking Partnership, but was told she had to pay because lines on the side of the road also apply to the layby.

But when Mrs Bessant returned to the scene weeks later, she found the lines had been burnt off the road and repainted on the layby.

The NVQ assessor said: “When I went back a few weeks later to the same place, I noticed the lines and I thought ‘I’m not having this’, so I wrote to them again and asked why, when they were happy to charge me the fine, they saw the need to change the lines.”

She was given the fine while visiting employers in the town who had taken on apprentices.

She added: “I thought about going to Asda, but I knew I would be there for more than two hours, so I found the layby near where I was going. When I went back after a few hours to check it was fine, but when I returned at 3.30pm there was a ticket on it.”

Mrs Bessant appealed the fine, submitting two photographs of how she had parked her car.

But parking chiefs insisted the fine was legitimate, saying: “The restrictions cover from the centre of road to the boundary of the private property and, therefore, includes pavements and verges.”

A second letter, on November 21, added: “The layby is for loading purposes only.”

A South Essex Parking Partnership spokesman said the lines had been repainted “for the sake of clarity” because the partnership has received a number of appeals.