Visitors are being put off visiting West Bay again after being slapped with parking tickets.

Adrian Wheeler was staying in Lyme Regis and on his way home to Berkshire on Sunday stopped at West Bay for a few hours.

“The car park was packed,” he said. “It was a crazy hot Sunday with a car boot sale taking up half the car park. The only place to park a long campervan without taking up two car spaces was in the unused coach bay along with the other six campervans that had parked there.

“I paid the £2 fee for parking and we feel it is totally unacceptable to give tickets out to people who have done the sensible thing and parked in unused bays allowing the cars to park in the smaller spaces.

“Dorset wants tourists to visit and spend money, especially in the circumstances, but due to the ticket we won’t bother stopping there again.

“It’s the principle of them not accepting that we had done the best thing and parked in unused coach bays and slapped tickets on everyone.”

Mr Wheeler appealed it and said the other campervan drivers who also got tickets would be too.

However, a letter back to him stated that the PCN was issued as he had ‘parked in a car park or area not designated for that class of vehicle’.

It said: “I can appreciate the car park was busy, however, if this was the case then you should have sought alternative parking within the town.

“I am satisfied that the penalty charge notice was correctly issued and that there are no grounds to cancel it.”

Steve Dotterill also fell victim to parking officers when he came down to the bay from Southampton on Sunday, August 2 with his daughter. He had not been to West Bay before and wanted to go somewhere nice for the day after lockdown.

He parked his Mazda Bongo, his sole vehicle which he says is no bigger than an estate car, in the car park where there were also a lot of VW vans and transit vans and he was surprised to return and find a ticket for parking a motorhome in a non-designated area.

He wants the signage to be clearer and tried to appeal the PCN.

He said: “My van is no bigger than a car really, it just has a high roof, and when I looked at the signage, there was a little picture of a big motorhome with a line through it, but I wouldn’t class mine as a motorhome.

“I was stood there scratching my head and there were four or five other people who had also got tickets, some were really furious about it.

“It really wasn’t clear and it wasn’t just me who overlooked this, so when I appealed it, I said it was a genuine misunderstanding and because of social distancing there was a huge queue at the ticket machine so I paid on my phone.

“I felt we had come out after a difficult period we had all had and to come somewhere to spend some money, help kickstart the economy and that’s the sort of thanks we get, I’m a little disappointed.

“I’ve paid the fine, but I just wanted to prick someone’s conscience at the council. There were no real signs up to say no campervans, otherwise it would just be me who got caught.”

A spokesman for Dorset Council said they could not comment on individual cases.