A letter published in your column this week reminded me of an experience at Oxford station a few years ago. I bought a ticket for my day's parking and because I had parked right up to the perimeter fence of the carpark, I stuck the ticket to the driver's side window, where it would be more accessible for inspection. I got a penalty notice for not displaying the ticket on the front windscreen. As I left the car park I spoke to an attendant on duty who explained that the person who had issued the penalty notice had finished his shift and although he couldn't revoke the notice, he gave me contact details to dispute it. The attendants had to issue a certain number of penalty notices each shift, but any notices that were successfully disputed were not deducted from their total.

I sent a cheque to APCOA with an explanation and a copy of my parking ticket and my rail tickets, and an invitation to return the cheque if they agreed that I hadn't contravened their terms of use of the car park. My cheque was returned with a letter instructing me only ever to fix my parking ticket to my front windscreen in future.

In contrast, a couple of weeks ago, in suburban Dusseldorf, I parked my UK registered car without the regulation Parkescheibe, the parking disc that shows time of arrival and departure. I left an explanatory note in German on the dashboard. On my return, under the windscreen wiper, was a hand-written note wishing me a pleasant stay in Dusseldorf, signed 'Your Parking attendant'.