Residents have expressed their fury at council bosses after their refusal to confirm whether any parking tickets were handed to travellers who set up camp at a leisure centre car park.

The travellers arrived at Fenton Manor Sports Complex, Stoke-on-Trent, on Friday night and left on Saturday afternoon.

They positioned around 20 caravans, as well as cars and vans, across the bottom car park.

The indiscriminate parking would have provided a field day for Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s traffic wardens, reports Stoke-on-Trent Live.

However, the council will not be drawn on whether any parking penalties – if any – were handed out on the pay-and-display car park. It was a point not lost on Stoke-on-Trent residents.

One woman said: “This makes me so angry. They won’t get ticketed or have their vehicles confiscated. It is one rule for the hardworking and law-abiding and another for the rulebreakers.”

Another resident said: “I hope the parking wardens are as efficient at issuing parking fines with these people as they are at car parks in Hanley.”

A third added: “Parking in multiple bays. Confiscate their vehicles if they fail to pay the impending fines before leaving”

A further resident added: “If they don’t get a parking ticket like I did for not parking correctly in a bay even though I don’t fit the council will get a complaint letter.”

Staffordshire Police had been called to the car park at 7.55pm on Friday, March 3.

A police spokesman said: “We were called to a premises on City Road following reports of the arrival of a number of travellers in a car park. On arrival, officers came across 10 caravans parked on the car park. Officers alerted the local authority which is responsible for the land. The travellers left the area a short time later.”

Stoke-on-Trent Live has asked the council to disclose how many parking tickets were handed to the travellers over the weekend. We will update the article accordingly.

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