PROOF that no motorist is immune from picking up a parking ticket came as South Lakeland District Council chairman Roger Bingham was landed with a £25 fine.

Coun Bingham was issued with a ticket for leaving his vehicle on double yellow lines on Allhallows Lane on the evening of Kendal's torchlight procession.

Council chief executive Philip Cunliffe said Coun Bingham had been told to park on the road, so that once the parade had passed Kendal Town Hall he could be given a police escort around town to beat the first float back to the leisure centre for the presentation of trophies.

Mr Cunliffe said unfortunately there had been a "misunderstanding" and Coun Bingham had parked on double yellow lines rather than the parking bays further up the road.

An eagle-eyed parking attendant spotted it during his routine round, and "quite correctly" issued a ticket, said Mr Cunliffe.

A witness in Kendal Town Hall, who saw the ticket being written out, said a number of people left the town hall and went over to the attendant, followed by Coun Bingham, who was upstairs with other VIPs in the Mayor's Parlour.

Although the eyewitness could not hear what happened or what was being said, he told the Gazette from his vantage point in the town hall Coun Bingham "appeared to take something off the windscreen and thrust it back at the attendant."

Coun Bingham told the Gazette he had since paid the £25 fine.

"There are no exceptions, not even for the chairman of the council," added Mr Cunliffe.