Canterbury man loses court battle over $40 ticket for parking on berm

By Keiller MacDuff of RNZ

A Canterbury man, who fought a $40 ticket for parking on the grass berm outside his house, has been found guilty and will have to pay the fine.

John Boulton will also have to pay court costs of $34 after fighting the ticket in the Christchurch District Court today.

The Rolleston resident was issued with the infringement notice by a Selwyn District Council parking officer in August last year.

He told RNZ he had been parking there for the last five years and had no idea it was not allowed.

Boulton took his fight to court as a matter of principle and to raise awareness of the bylaw.

He acknowledged the area was council land, but said when his family moved in, it was just bare dirt.

“There was no lawn or anything. We planted the grass seed, fertilised it, watered it, maintained it and looked after it.”

That formed part of his argument in court today.

“The council has never maintained it. I planted it,” Boulton told the Justices of the Peace hearing the matter.

He even went as far as sending the council a bill for his work after he received the ticket.

“I told them to take it off the parking ticket,” he told the court.

The council’s lawyer Sophie Meares said the bylaw had been in effect since 2009 and the council was in its rights to adopt and enforce controls over its roads under the Land Transport Act.

Rolleston's John Boulton is battling the council over a fine for parking on the berm. Photo / Tim Brown / RNZ

Boulton’s defence centred on his ignorance of the law and his long standing practise of parking on the grass outside his home.

“I did park there but I didn’t realise it was illegal,” Boulton conceded in court.

“I have lived there virtually for my whole life and never knew it existed. I don’t think anybody else does either.”

The parking officer who issued the ticket told the council only employed parking officers in the past two years and it was simply expected the bylaw would be followed until then.

That might explain why Boulton was able to breach the bylaw without repercussion for so long, the officer, who had name suppression, said.

The officer issued the ticket after responding to a complaint about Boulton’s parking from a member of the public.

But win or lose, Boulton said having the case heard in court and publicly surrounding it had been a moral victory.

- RNZ

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