We have an update on the car that was very eye-catchingly positioned amid the York floods.
As we reported earlier, the white Range Rover was much photographed yesterday after being seen sitting partially in the overflow of the Ouse on Queen’s Staith.
We said it was removed after being ‘apparently stuck’.
Not so! It turns out the vehicle had been very carefully left in exactly that position.
The Range Rover belongs to Phil Smith, owner of the Queen’s Hotel on Skeldergate.
And he parked as far as he could into the flooded hotel car park for a very good reason.
“I was fitting a broken sink in one of the hotel bathrooms so I needed the new parts and tools,” Phil said.
“So I parked there to stop getting a parking ticket!”
He said traffic wardens can be very quick to ticket any vehicles on the street outside the hotel.
Guests who have left their car for a few minutes to check in and get access to the car park have come out to find a penalty notice on their windscreen.
Phil added: “I thought if I parked there, the warden wouldn’t be able to get to the windscreen to place a ticket. And the car was mostly in our garage anyway.”
He and a friend had chuckled at the comments generated by pictures of the car on social media.
One said: “Could be a very expensive write off if it becomes a boat lol”. Another wrote: “When you’re struggling for cheap parking in York!”
After he’d finished fixing the sink, Phil was able to drive away without any problems – or parking fines!
