A ONE-man campaign has been launched to make sure visitors to a North Yorkshire market town don't fall foul of a tough, new parking rules

Gerry Atkinson, 70, realised that motorists in Richmond were being fined after forgetting to display a parking disc so he began distributing discs himself on cars that would have been targeted by the traffic warden.

On Saturday (Oct 19) Mr Atkinson and his nine-year-old daughter Ceira took to the streets with multi-lingual signs warning visitors they face fines of up to £30 if they park without valid discs or passes.

He handed out around 150 parking discs to visitors from across the region, including Cumbria and York.

He said: “I understand the need for parking wardens – without them the town would be chaos.

"But not everyone seems to be aware how careful they need to be and I have seen a lot of people getting caught out with a fine.

“I started going into town with parking discs a couple of weeks ago and have given out about 35 on a couple of occasions to cars that had no disc or one with the time about to run out.”

Mr Atkinson said he believes businesses in the town should do more to make sure people remember to use the discs.

“If I had a business in the town I would put a poster in my window and remind my customers to display a disc,” he said.

“On Saturday, while 98 per cent of the feedback was positive, I did have some negative comments that I was putting visitors off. I’m just trying to help people and stop them getting fined.”

Richmond Town Councillor Stuart Parsons said any attempt to remind people to display correct parking discs was a good thing – but that it was not the responsibility of the town’s businesses.

“I don’t think it’s their job to make sure people use them, but many businesses in the town stock free parking discs for visitors and residents,” he said.

Mr Atkinson said he had been told that the traders that do stock parking discs often run out.

He added: “I’m going to go out again this week so hopefully more people can have a day out in Richmond without having their day ruined by a visit from a traffic warden.”