Santa ticket
© The SunScrooge ... repositioned ticket
Charity fundraisers were left fuming today after they were given a parking ticket while they assembled Santa's sleigh.

Richard Walters, from West Bridgford Round Table in Nottingham, had towed the sleigh to the town's Tudor Square to set it up.

Pavement

He said he left his car for just three minutes to unhook the sleigh and move it on to the pavement, but came back to find a ticket had been slapped on his vehicle.

He said: "It's absolutely ridiculous. I had parked just off the road to unhook the sleigh and push it on to the pavement.

"I was there for probably about three minutes and no more.

"I came back to take the car off to the car park and there was a parking attendant leaving a ticket.

"What was I supposed to do? It was quite obvious why I'd left it there briefly."

Mr Walters, 38, said the Round Table collected at the same spot every year to raise money for local charities.

He said: "We're a small organisation and this is our 50th year. Every year we work really hard to do this.

"We take it in turns to be Santa and we raise a few thousand pounds for local charities.

"The shopkeepers have all backed me up - it's just ridiculous.

"Even if I had been there slightly longer, like five or six minutes, it's clear what I was doing.

"We are just trying to raise some money for the local area and this is what has happened."

But Tim Cowen, director of communications for NCP Services, which is contracted by Nottinghamshire County Council to enforce parking in the area, said they were confident the ticket had been issued correctly.

He said: "The ticket was issued to a Land Rover that was unattended. It was parked on zigzag lines next to a pedestrian crossing.

"That's a very dangerous form of illegal parking. Those zigzag lines are not to be parked on at any time.

"This car was completely unattended, it did not have a sleigh attached to it.

If there is anyone standing next to a car, the first thing we do is ask them to move."

Mr Cowen said it could not be correct that Mr Walters had only been gone for three minutes, because tickets took at least five minutes to issue.

He added: "We are very sympathetic to his charitable work and we wish him well with that but we cannot condone dangerous parking in this way.

"If he feels he has been treated unfairly we would urge him to appeal.

"We are absolutely confident that that ticket was issued correctly.