Volunteers fined while feeding homeless ‘not exempt from rules’

Kim Law (right) and other volunteers hhave been fined (Image: MEN Media)Charity volunteers have been repatedly issued parking fines while they’ve served breakfast for the homeless.Kim Law, 65, and other volunteers have been issued around “half a dozen” tickets between them over the last year as they park their cars in a loading bay near where they cook meals for homeless charity Lifeshare.But a council says the team is not exempt from parking restrictions on the road in Manchester city centre.Kim, who with the other volunteers cooks and serves breakfast from 5am on Sundays, said: “Lifeshare offered to pay the ticket, and I said no because I don’t think it is right for a charity to be paying a ticket to Manchester City Council.”It just doesn’t seem right that we’re in this situation. It’s disgusting.”Kim, who has been volunteering at Lifeshare for a decade, told Manchester Evening News she and the rest of the team always leave notes on the windscreens to explain the situation and they don’t feel they are causing any “obstruction”.”We cook a lovely hot breakfast for increasingly more and more people, and open our doors at 7am on Sunday mornings. We park in the loading bay around the corner because our cars are always full of so much stuff – clothes and food.”So we couldn’t park anywhere else other than just around the corner.” The volunteers prepare and serve indoor breakfasts for the city’s homeless (Image: Supplied)Lifeshare works alongside the council, controlled by the Labour Party, to provide an indoors weekend breakfast service for people who are sleeping on the streets of the city.Kim, from Manchester, said: “We’re helping the vulnerable people in our society – and it’s still dead at that time in the morning, there is nobody about.”I had 250 tins of beans in my boot the day I got one of the tickets. It’s not about paying for it, I can well afford to pay the ticket. It’s the principle of it.”While the council welcomes work of charities, it said volunteers “are not exempt from the parking enforcement rules”. Kim said they leave letters in their windscreens explaining the situation (Image: Supplied)A spokesperson from Manchester City Council said: “Lifeshare is a key partner in the Manchester Homelessness Partnership providing a valued weekend breakfast indoors for people who are sleeping on the streets and their volunteers are essential for the delivery of this service.”We welcome the work that the volunteers do, and we support organisations where we can, but volunteers are not exempt from the parking enforcement rules.”Pay and display bays can be used for free up until 8 am at the weekends but are subject to parking charges after that time, which everyone has to comply with.”Lifeshare declined to comment when approached by the Manchester Evening News.