A disgruntled grandmother is adamantly refusing to pay a £60 parking fine she received after mistakenly choosing the wrong location on a parking app, arguing that "common decency" should prevail.

Wendy Hill was taking her grandson Rorie for a playdate in Hornchurch, east London last month. Upon parking her car, she attempted to purchase a ticket from the machine, which unfortunately wouldn't accept either cash or card.

Left with no other option, Mrs Hill downloaded the RingGo app and created an account to make the payment.

However, she inadvertently paid for on-road parking instead of the car park she was actually using, having selected what appeared as the top option based on her location on the app.

Later that day, she was slapped with a £60 fine by Havering Council. Despite pleading her case, citing an honest mistake and appealing to their "common decency", the local authority has remained steadfast in its refusal to cancel her fine.

Undeterred, Mrs Hill has expressed her willingness to take the matter to court rather than pay what she deems an "unfair" fine.

"I'm not paying it," she said. "You can imagine: I'm in the car park and I've got a two-year-old that doesn't want to stand still.

"He's a very active child and there are cars coming in to park, so I moved onto the pavement so that I was off the road."

She added: "The app gives you the option that picks up your location, so I selected that and paid for the car. I'm so law-abiding, if I hadn't paid for a ticket I would have paid for one as soon as I got home.

"It took me ten minutes to sort and pay for the parking. I was so annoyed [to get a fine] because I had paid for a ticket."

Mrs Hill reported an influx of solidarity on social media after sharing her frustrating parking saga, with numerous people claiming they'd faced similar predicaments at the very same lot.

Upon contesting her penalty, Havering Council explained to Mrs Hill that though she did pay for parking, she inadvertently chose the incorrect parking zone in the RingGo app.

She mistakenly paid for a spot on Fentiman Way itself, rather than in the intended Fentiman Way car park.

Mrs Hill suggested that the RingGo app may have misconstrued her location as being on the road, while she used the application from the pavement near both parking zones.

"I'm fuming because it was a genuine error," she said. "I know that, legally, I paid for the wrong car park, but it's just common decency."

Mrs Hill questioned the fairness of the system by drawing a parallel: "When Havering Council workers input something incorrectly, do they get their wages docked? Shops are losing their trade because people are so scared to park."

She added that even a court mandate wouldn't sway her to pay the unjust fine: "Even if the court ordered me to pay it, I would still refuse because it's really unfair."

On top of her ordeal, Mrs Hill recounted another incident where her husband faced a severe parking penalty due to mistakingly choosing the wrong location on RingGo during an urgent errand with his elderly mother amidst the grieving period after his father passed away.

Havering Council has clarified the situation regarding a contentious parking fine, stating: "The penalty charge notice was issued as the customer booked a parking session for on-street parking in Fentiman Way, but actually parked their vehicle in Fentiman Way car park, these are two different parking locations."

They further explained the customer's appeal outcome by saying: "A challenge was received from the customer, but rejected on the basis that an incorrect parking location had been paid for."