Motorists in Burnham-On-Sea were left scratching their heads on Saturday when summer parking charges came into force along the seafront, but no parking payment machines were able to take their money.
Four of the seafront machines had not been set-up correctly to begin taking payments, leaving a red-faced parking manager from Sedgemoor District Council to place ‘out of order’ stickers like the ones pictured here on the front of machines.
A council spokesman told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “The start of charging has not gone to plan, with several of the machines unfortunately being out of order.”
“The clocks had not been set correctly, which means they are unable to issue correctly printed tickets.”
The situation left many motorists confused. One holidaymaker, Phil Simons from Gosport, who was staying at Burnham Holiday Village, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “It’s all very confusing. The signs on the machines ask you to try another machine, but none of them are working so I’ve walked some distance and still don’t have a ticket.”
“We don’t know what to do – it’s unclear whether we can leave our car free of charge or whether we’ll be fined. A shambles.”
