A WISBECH businesswoman has complained to magistrates of being criminalised by yellow lines around her shop.

Kathryn Robb, who runs the family run shoe shop Gibbs of Wisbech Ltd. was caught parked in a restricted zone in Church Terrace.

She admitted the parking infringement when she appeared before Fenland magistrates.

“I am trying to run a business and have to move stock on a regular basis,” she explained.

“I feel I am being criminalised because yellow lines have been put around the property, making it impossible to do that,” she said. “I asked a PCSO what I was supposed to do, but they had no answers.

“The shop has been there for 90 years, we were there before the lines.”

Robb, 49, said yellow lines had been in place for around 20 years, and she had run the business for 15-20 years.

“Before that my father employed the traffic warden’s wife and we worked together,” she explained. “We had an understanding that we have to load and unload.”

A PCSO issued Robb with a parking ticket after finding her Volkswagen parked in yellow lines in Church Terrace on September 1.

“There were clear signs saying no parking’ there was nothing in the window to say the driver was disabled, or loading or unloading,” said prosecuctor Nicola Rice.

The PCSO observed the car for 10 minutes before issuing a �30 parking ticket. Robb refused the ticket, although she accepted she had broken the law.”

Robb told magistrates that a one and a half hour visit to the Citizens’ Advice Bureau had led to her being issued with an exemption certificate that now allows her to park on the lines for up to 20 minutes.

“I think I was given it to shut me up,” Robb told the court. “I object to the way I have been criminalised.”

The court decided not to impose any penalty.