A PARKING ticket was slapped on a digger - after it had been hired by the council to resurface a town centre road.

Workmen for contractors John Hopkins Ltd decided to move their vehicles, from where they had been working on Sunday near Whitakers store in Deansgate and leave them overnight in the less busy side street of Howell Croft North.

They wanted to save time when they began work again - and cause less inconvenience to the public.

But a few minutes after 8am on Monday, before the contractors started work, a parking ticket was put on the digger while it was still in the side street in a spot where there are parking restrictions.

Shaun Hopkins, co-director of John Hopkins Ltd said: "Naturally we will be appealing. The workman left the vehicles overnight surrounded by cones so they were not dangerous to the public, and were off the main road so it would not cause chaos on a busy highway.

"They had the intention of causing less of a hindrance to the public and, by leaving the vehicles at the site, the resurfacing work was finished ahead of schedule."

One of the workmen added: "It's an absolute joke, people want the roads improving and the jobs done, but when we get here we have nothing but problems and parking tickets.

"We moved the vehicles to the side street in the interest of the public, keeping the buses running on time and not blocking pavements - and this is what we end up with.

"I can tell you now, this is not coming out of my wage."

Work started in Deansgate outside Whitakers, on Sunday morning and was completed ahead of schedule at 10am on Monday morning.

A council spokesman said: "The roadwork vehicle was parked on a taxi rank and the taxi rank signs are clearly visible and the parking attendant was correct to issue a ticket.

"The problem could have been avoided if the company had approached us asking for the parking restriction to be temporarily suspended.

"The workmen were not actually working on the roads at the time of the ticket being issued."