Single parent Angela Leng is challenging a car park company after being booked in Bradford City Centre.

The 34-year-old believes she has been unfairly treated by Excel Parking Services Ltd, who are now threatening legal action over her unpaid ticket.

She said she parked at the Forster Square Retail Park and was about to leave her car when a warden approached her. "He told me I couldn't leave my car like that - the wheels were within the white lines but the bonnet was sticking out because there was a metal barrier at the back of me which prevented me reversing any further," she said.

"He said I could go back another few inches so I asked him to stand at the back and guide me. He refused and said it wasn't his job. I had my son and my brother in the car but they were already walking towards the shops and he said I would have to get one of them to see me back.

"I left the car unlocked and the window open and went to get one of them - but when we returned he had already written out a ticket.

"I asked him what he was doing, especially as he had told me I would have to get one of my passengers to help me. He didn't answer me and just walked away."

The warden booked her for failing to park correctly in a marked bay.

"Signs in the car park only relate to staying more than three hours - there's nothing telling you you can be booked for not parking correctly in a marked bay," she said.

The £50 penalty is reduced to £25 if it is paid within seven days of issue and increased to £90 if it is not paid within 14 days. Ms Leng, of Eccleshill, has now received a letter demanding the £90 penalty plus £10 court fees and £27.50 solicitor's costs.

It tells her she has seven days to pay or proceedings will be started against her.

"It's totally unfair and absolutely disgusting," she said.

Trading Standards officer Bruce McKay said: "If what Ms Leng has said is correct, then it's a ridiculous situation.

"I can understand him not wanting to guide her back because he could be accused of being to blame if she had an accident.

"But if it's true he booked her while she was going to get a passenger, it is clearly unfair.

"It does raise some questions about parking in marked bays. What happens if you get to a space, find another car is partly covering it but you manage to squeeze in, although it puts your vehicle over the line in some way?

"That car then moves out and the warden comes and finds yours wrongly parked not through you own fault.

"Bearing in mind parking spaces are at a premium in Bradford, should you have ignored that free space and spent time and petrol trying to find another one or should you have used it?

"I think if there are marked spaces, it is reasonable to expect you to park in them. But if it is the scenario I've described, then I think it's all down to the test of reasonableness."

Excel Parking Services Ltd refused to comment.

Flushed with anger

How long should a loo seat last? That's the question Alan Parker has been asking a Bradford discount store since his split - four months after he bought it.

And the 52-year-old from Windhill was flushed with anger when he took the wooden seat back to the store.

"They said it was fair wear and tear," he said.

"It's ridiculous - it's a stupid comment to make.

"The store said it was too late to do anything about it but it would have been all right if we had taken it back when we bought it in April - but it wasn't split then.

"They say it's wear and tear so does that mean we have to buy a new loo seat every four months?"

But a store spokesman said the seat was a slight second and was clearly marked as such.

"What has happened is that there is a gap between two of the pieces of wood that go to make up the seat and that was probably why it was a second in the first place," he said.

"The gap was probably covered with varnish and that has been worn off with normal cleaning. The gap is not detrimental to the seat."

A West Yorkshire Trading Standards spokesman said the rights of the consumer when buying seconds are a grey area in law. "Goods still have to be of satisfactory quality," he said.

"But you have no rights in relation to defects that an examination of the item before purchase ought to have revealed. If the defect was covered in packaging or a label and they couldn't see it at purchase, they should have taken it back as soon as they saw it.

"I think hygiene could be affected in this case which could bring into play the question of whether it is of satisfactory quality but it would be for a judge to decide."

He said if the seat was bought as new, with no faults at the time of purchase, Mr Parker would be entitled to a refund less an amount for four months wear and tear.

We get results

A gas company rep who persuaded a 97-year-old man to change his gas and electricity supply has been dropped from its sales team.

Rights and Wrongs reported last week how the rep - working for a sales agency employed by Swindon-based Calortex - was suspended without pay after we highlighted his visit to the elderly man in Saltaire.

A Calortex spokesman said the rep has since been interviewed by his firm and she added: "He has had his Calortex ID badge removed and he will no longer be on the streets selling for us."

Asked if he had been sacked, she said: "That is not a matter for us - it is up to the company which employs him."

She refused to name the company, which is believed to be based in Bradford.

"We have a very stringent policy on our code of conduct," she said.

Mrs Rosina Craven complained to Rights and Wrongs after her father, who is almost blind, was visited by the rep and signed a contract to transfer his gas and electricity supplies to Calortex.

The contract has since been cancelled.

Mrs Craven, who lives in Baildon, said: "I'm pleased he will not be getting on to old people any more. I think something had to be done and people had to know."

The incident was criticised by both the gas industry regulator Ofgas and the Gas Consumers Council.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.