A VICTORIOUS pensioner who has won a parking battle with Bolton Council is urging other motorists not to give up in their fight for parking justice.

Peter Barry was fined £60 after he left his car in the Octagon surface level car park off Great Moor Street in June this year.

The 73-year-old bought a pay and display ticket for his car. When he returned 20 minutes later he was annoyed to find he had been given a penalty notice for not parking inside a marked space at the car park, which is managed for the council by private firm APCOA.

Mr Barry argued that all the marked bays were full and the area where he had left his car had regularly been used by motorists to park for years, there were no signs prohibiting parking there, and he was not blocking any other vehicles.

But Bolton Council rejected his appeal, saying that they had to enforce parking regulations on the grounds of safety, inconvenience to other car park users and to allow the passage of other vehicles.

But Mr Barry, of Chorley Old Road, refused to give up the fight and took his case to the National Parking Adjudication Service.

At a hearing at Bolton's Moat House Hotel, the adjudicator agreed Mr Barry should not have to pay the fine.

Mr Barry said: "I am really pleased, but does this mean all motorists who have been penalised for parking in this area will be able to claim refunds on the grounds of miscarriage of justice?"

A spokesman for Bolton Council parking services said they would be studying the findings carefully, but people who have already paid fines for parking in the same spot would not be getting a refund. "This does not set a precedent," he said.

The department had had several complaints from motorists about the same spot and, since the summer, yellow cross hatch markings had been painted on it to make it more obvious that no parking is allowed there.