A BASINGSTOKE man is furious after he was handed two parking tickets while using the new electric car charging point in the town centre.

Adam Diggins, who owns a Nissan Leaf, said he was delighted when he heard of council plans to introduce a charging point for electric cars in Central Car Park.

But he has now vowed not to use the facility again after picking up two parking tickets in the space of a few weeks. On the first occasion, he parked his car by the charger, intending to use it, but it wasn’t working.

The 42-year-old, who works in IT, said: “I looked at the signage, but all it said was that the spaces were for electric cars to use for half-an-hour, there was nothing about the car having to be charging.”

When he returned he found he had a £50 penalty charge notice (PCN) which he was able to successfully appeal.

He said: “The council told me they would review their signage and they cancelled my parking ticket.

“I thought that was fair enough.”

However, he was shocked to be targeted by wardens for a second time. Mr Diggins plugged in his car before going into town for a meeting, explaining: “I knew I would be more than half-an-hour and I knew that you only get half-an-hour free with the charger, so I bought a ticket for an hour.

“But when I got back, around an hour later, someone had unplugged my car and plugged the charger into their own car – there are two spaces but only one charger.

“I don’t have an issue with that, as my car had finished charging. But I did not expect to get a ticket.

“The warden said that the car had to be charging, but unless you stay with your car, there is no way of checking that it hasn’t been unplugged.

“I felt like he was not listening to me, and he didn’t understand that someone had unplugged my car.

“Obviously this is going to happen again in the future – is everyone going to get tickets when this happens to them?

“It makes no sense to have two spaces for one charger, when only one can use it at a time.”

Again, he successfully appealed against the £50 PCN, but says he will not use the charger again, because of concerns that he will receive another ticket if his car is once again unplugged.

The borough council said that tickets will be issued if the vehicle is not physically plugged in, regardless of whether or not it is unplugged by someone other than the owner.

Sophia Waite-King, senior external information and communications officer, explained: “There is a sign on the bay saying electric vehicles only, and yellow hatching on the ground to indicate that it’s different to other car parking spaces.

“Parking remains free for the first 30 minutes as per the rest of the car park, but after this time they need to pay.

“People don’t need to stay with their cars while charging, but they do need to be plugged in.”