I am writing regarding parking in Blackburn, specifically the council parking meters along Darwen Street.

I parked up outside the Oasis takeaway and proceeded to pay for a ticket for 30 minutes.

Now this costs 60p on the meters which I don’t mind paying to save the hassle of any risks of fines.

The machine only detected 40p and proceeded to give me 15 minutes of time, which typically costs 30p. So I paid 10p more for the same service.

Not only this, I noticed the time was three minutes early on the machine and ticket compared to my phone.

I even checked this against the world clock and my phone was correct as it updates automatically from the internet.

All this sounds very picky, but it’s the principle behind it - not giving change on the machines and also robbing people of a few minutes.

It makes me wonder how many people have been fined for being a couple of minutes late because of what their ticket says, compared to what their true time should be.

Kristian Oldale (via email)