Some weeks ago friends of mine came for lunch and parked outside our home in a four hour parking bay.

The time was 12noon. As a precaution, I had bought a visitor's parking permit which I gave to my friends as I did not know how long they were going to stay.

At 3.30pm my friends left, but when they got to their car a parking attendant had already placed a penalty notice on their windscreen. My friends had not entered the registration number of their car on the parking voucher.

However, they had only been in the bay for three-and-a-half hours, well within the permitted time.

My friends appealed against the fine but no latitude was given and the fine had to be paid.

Compare this treatment with an incident my wife and I experienced on July 22. We were lunching in Brown's Restaurant at a window table.

While we sat there, two private vehicles were parked directly opposite the restaurant on double yellow lines. After they had been there for approximately 15 minutes, a parking attendant came along, took some details and walked away.

He returned just over five minutes later and had just begun to photograph the first vehicle when its owner came along and, after much pleading, was permitted to drive away without any penalty.

The attendant then apparently ignored the second vehicle, a Jaguar saloon car and walked away. A few minutes later the lady owner of the Jaguar appeared, got into her car and drove away, totally oblivious that she had been most fortunate.

I wonder how many of your readers can relate similar tales of grossly inequitable treatment.

This type of inconsistency is totally unacceptable and it is clear the council - already criticised as one of the most voracious in the country - needs to get its act together.

-Tony Jellings, Brighton