Angry driver fined £30 after bout of diarrhoea forced him to abandon his car

Walter Grieve was forced to abandon his electric car at a charging point after becoming unwell.

An Edinburgh man has been hit with a £30 fine after a bout of diarrhoea caused him to abandon his electric car at a charging point.

Walter Grieve, 66, left his car to charge all day at the Drumbrae Library Hub, but failed to make it back within the 12-hour limit after suffering from an unfortunate stomach bug, Edinburgh Live reports.

Realising he would be fined, Walter emailed Edinburgh Council to explain the situation to lodge an appeal – but only received one response over a three-month period despite escalating the query to a complaint.

Walter, who has owned an electric vehicle since the start of 2021- explained the March 6 incident. 

He said: ‘I usually charge it for about six or seven hours. You register with the council and get a card to use their electric car charging points then you receive an invoice later.

‘I had left my car on charge at ten in the morning and went home to have some lunch-I had been feeling unwell but managed to eat some food then became much more unwell later on.

‘I had an upset stomach and was an hour late collecting it, when I arrived at around 11.30pm I knew it had gone over the 12 hours limit. So I emailed the council early the next day to explain as I knew I would get a fine. I received the £30 overstay fine on March 6, and 11 weeks later I have still had no official response.

‘I chased up my appeal three times in the following weeks having had no response. I then made a formal complaint to Edinburgh Council by telephone. I had to chase that up a couple of times over the following weeks. This resulted in one email stating they would get back to me by the end of that week but never did.

‘I then raised this lack of response from the council with my local councillor who is “looking into it”, but I have still had no proper response and it is now about 11 weeks since I first appealed!’

He continued: ‘It’s the whole process of emailing and not getting a response, chasing it up and not getting a response, to then complaining and still not getting a response.

‘Finally they got in touch today and asked for evidence to back up my extenuating circumstances but I had a stomach bug and diarrhoea – you wouldn’t go to the GP for that even if you could get an appointment.

‘It’s coming up for three months now since I got the ticket and it still has not been dealt with, which is frustrating.’

A spokeswoman for the council explained that officers have now responded to Walter asking for further information to assess the appeal and have advised this will be dealt with as a priority.

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