WE recently visited your city on holiday, and, as residents of York, we have been very familiar with the park and ride scheme for many years so we decided to do the sensible thing, and found Seacourt.

As the bus was waiting when we parked the car, we hurried over and I asked the driver if we should pay anything, as in York we pay to travel on the bus in addition to having a bus pass and he replied no.

On our return, we were shocked to find a parking fine on the car for £50 (if you pay up quickly, otherwise it is unbelievably £100).

Since we do not pay for parking our car in York, and did not realise that you had to here – bearing in mind that we just saw the bus so hurried on to it – we unfortunately did not notice any signs or machines.

Had we known then, why would we deliberately risk incurring a huge fine for the sake of spending a few pounds?

We therefore do not understand how this facility can be called a 'park and ride' as we understand that these facilities are to help reduce congestion by drivers being able to park free and just pay the required bus fare.

If we ever visit your city again, we will not be using this scheme.

We now have £50 to pay out of our very limited budget. After writing to Oxford Council with our genuine explanation, they are only interested in money-grabbing from pensioners.

MRS AND MRS SHEVIS, Gilsforth Lane, York