A frustrated driver is calling on the council to stop “harassing” motorists with unwarranted fines and provide adhesive parking tickets.

Roy Gilbert, of Stoneleigh, was handed a penalty notice when the ticket he had bought and displayed in his car blew over as he shut its door in Epsom's Rainbow Centre car park.

Although Epsom Council, which owns the car park, did not contest his appeal against the notice, Mr Gilbert was outraged that he had been given the fine in the first place and submitted a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to the council.

It revealed that 18 parking tickets a week had been issued in the car park to drivers for parking "without clearly displaying a valid pay and display ticket" between November 13 last year and July 4.

The pensioner believes the council should be providing tickets with an adhesive backing to stop such penalty notices being issued.

He said: "In many cases, the ticket doesn't stay there and the council pursues its ratepayers for fines ranging from £25 to £75 when in fact the ratepayer is not at fault.

"It’s the tickets which are at fault, they have no means of fixing them properly to the dashboard.

"Join me in asking Epsom and Ewell to change their parking tickets so innocent residents are not harassed by the council for parking fines they don't deserve.

"I wonder how many residents pay the £25 discounted rate so as not to be harassed by the council anymore?"

An Epsom Council spokesman said 2,000 cars use the car park every week and under one per cent of drivers receive an enforcement notice for not displaying a valid ticket.

He said: "For the vast majority of drivers, this is not a major issue. Some drivers object to the sticky residue left from stick-on tickets.

"In this case, the driver appealed as he had purchased a ticket and, even though - as he admitted - the ticket was not on display, the fine was waived and no fine was paid.

"It is difficult to understand how this could be deemed harassment."