Traffic wardens this week closed ranks after a visitor to Winchester vowed never to return because of the way they treated him.

Dr Philip Johnston says he spent £200 shopping, having lunch and visiting the Cathedral and the Great Hall.

But when he got back to his motor caravan, for which he had bought a ticket in St Peter car park, he discovered a £20 penalty notice slapped on it.

"I was within the time, but received a ticket because I was 'not wholly within a marked bay'--impossible if the bays are too short," stormed Dr Johnston, from Ludlow.

He added that although other vehicles had extended over their bays, none of them had received a ticket.

His appeal was rejected by parking enforcement manager, Basil Davies, a dismissal which made up Dr Johnston's mind: "I have visited Winchester for the first and last time," he promised.

"If this is the petty way in which visitors are treated, I shall park and shop in Salisbury instead."

But Mr Davies insisted the warden was right to issue the ticket and that he was right to turn down the appeal: "He was well out of the bay--the vehicle's two front wheels were protruding right out."

Mr Davies pointed motorists with bigger vehicles in the direction of the coach park in Worthy Lane.

He admitted, though, that the way there was poorly signed: "We acknowledge that there are problems with this and we are looking at addressing them

"But if someone is coming to the city with a vehicle that size, I would phone up first and check. He should have made enquiries when coming to a strange place."

Answering Dr Johnston's objection that other vehicles were not also punished, Mr Davies said: "The parking attendant would have booked them all had they been protruding and had he seen them. If they came after the attendant had gone, then they were lucky."

In 1998, the then mayor, George Fothergill, warned traffic wardens that visitors would be put off coming to the city unless they softened their image.