Angry commuters have been slapped with fines after the council raised car parking charges – and their tickets ran out while they were at work.

Hannah White, 31, bought her usual daily £3.80 car park ticket at Macclesfield railway station before catching the train into Manchester.

But she says she returned to find a £25 parking ticket because the charges had been increased and she had unwittingly not paid enough.

She says the new charges were advertised on machines in other car parks in town, but not at the station.

Hannah’s workmate Trevor Webster got a ticket after he also failed to notice the increase.

The pair, who work for Co-operative Bank, are now fighting the fines. Hannah said: "It was really just an innocent accident. Yes, they had followed statutory requirements to advertise in the newspaper and put an A4 sheet of paper somewhere on the car park, but you’d struggle to find it. I checked other machines in Macclesfield and it was advertised in big red letters on the machine. They have been inconsistent. I thought there’s no way they can justify my parking ticket."

Coun Rod Menlove said 300 tickets are sold at the station each week and there had only been one complaint. He said: "Notices of the changes were displayed on the car park and advertised in the local media, both of which are the statutory requirements under car parking regulations. The complainant has simply missed these signs.

"The notices are A4 laminated signs, which are much larger than the ‘new charges’ sticker the complainant refers to. These stickers are not a mandatory requirement.

"We also issued warning notices for two days following the price rise as extra help for users. I would advise customers to check their ticket every time they buy one."