In the Daily Telegraph recently the Transport Editor David Millward wrote about the exploitation of motorists by Local Authorities and he cited in particular Westminster Council. I have just had one of these experiences with Hammersmith and Fulham Council, who accused me of doing a U-turn and issued a Penalty Notice.

I reluctantly paid the £65 fine because, if I appealed and they found against me, I would have had to pay £195 plus costs. But I asked them for future reference what their definition was of a U-turn.

After protracted correspondence they said that their definition, established by "their Adjudicator", was in fact what I had done which consisted of reversing into a driveway and then returning the way I had come, whereas of course the accepted definition of a U-turn is actually turning in the road. Hammersmith and Fulham Council told me in writing that they have 50,000 letters a year contesting their Penalty Notices which seems to bear out the exploitation of motorists point.