An animal rescuer was hit with a parking fine while he was saving a family of ducklings.

Hayden Habgood, who works for the Riverside Animal Centre in Beddington, was called to out to London Road, Carshalton, on Wednesday last week to rescue some baby ducks spotted trying to cross the busy road.

The 43-year-old rescue driver from Shirley parked his clearly marked animal rescue van on a nearby grass verge.

However, while he was in his waders in the muddy pond a CCTV car driver who was passing by did a double take and returned to give the charity a £55 fine.

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Mr Habgood holds one of the ducklings

Shirley Rees, who lives nearby, was helping to rescue the ducklings and pleaded with the CCTV car driver not to give him a ticket.

She said: "It was unbelievable they gave this man a ticket. He was up to his waist in mud.

"The car was on the green verge by the pond - it wasn’t on the road. He put it on there so it didn’t block traffic.

"I said to him ‘We are doing an animal rescue here we are trying to save some little ducklings’.

"They are a charity and that money is going to have to pay for that. I was absolutely outraged. It is awful."

The council has now agreed to waive the fine after the Riverside Centre appealed. 

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The Riverside Centre's van parked on the verge 

Mr Habgood said: "I thought I’m not going to park on the road I’m going to block the traffic so I will park on the grass verge and people and cars and get passed.

"It’s never happened before on a rescue. We have a big sign saying animal rescue.

"It’s just the principle of it. It would be different if I parked to go into a shop but I was doing a rescue."

The Riverside Animal Centre manager, Ted Burden, said the charity appealed the fine as it had always parked there when attending rescues at the pond - even being told to park on the verge by the police once as they rescued a swan.

Councillor Jill Whitehead chair of the environment and neighbourhood committee said: “Our CCTV team record footage of vehicles that are parked inappropriately, causing an obstruction to passing traffic and pedestrians.

"In this case the footage collected does not show the ducklings being rescued which is why a penalty was issued.

“However, the council has an appeals procedure in place to deal with any disputes over PCNs and following discussion with the driver; we have decided to waive the penalty in this instance. The council is a keen supporter of the dedication of the Riverside Animal Centre.”

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Mr Habgood and one of the ducklings