AN Automobile Association spokeswoman said that wherever there had been a local authority take-over of parking ticket operations there had been a huge increase in the distribution of penalty tickets.

She commented: "We are not against people being fined for misdemeanours. For the free flow of traffic there has to be some form of monitoring; but there does appear to be an element of over-zealousness.

"People are quite rightly aggrieved; there has be to some form of common sense prevailing. We don't want to see people done for silly things which cause great offence.

"We have heard of instances of ambulances being clamped."

She said the AA felt that a "fair and transparent" appeals procedure should be part of the parking ticket scheme for people who felt they had been wrongly charged.

She revealed that when the scheme was first set up in Manchester, only one-tenth of original convictions had been maintained when complaints had gone through appeal.

"The powers that be realised just how inappropriate some of the fines were," she remarked. "Hopefully things will settle down as more publicity is given to some of the sillier cases."