Sevenoaks District Council has said they cannot enforce penalty notices to the owners of foreign-registered cars.

Locals have become extremely concerned by the statement. Nick Lawrence who runs Regal Shoe Repairs in Sevenoaks, informed the District Council about a foreign car parked on double-yellow lines for months which caused him problems with deliveries.

He said: “A customer got a ticket after a few minutes of being parked in the same spot, the polish car had been there for weeks. It’s discrimination.”

A Sevenoaks Council spokesman said: “We do issue parking tickets to foreign registered vehicles. However while we strive to enforce all parking restrictions, the DVLA has explicitly told councils not to ask for vehicle keeper requests for foreign registered vehicles.

"These are necessary to chase up unpaid fines. In practice this makes it impossible to enforce Penalty Charge Notices issued against the owners of these vehicles."

Despite concerns from the public, the spokesman said: "In the year to the end of March 2014, only two foreign registered vehicles had not paid their fine."

The council has said it issued a ticket to the vehicle in discussion, and that it has been paid by the owner, "we have written to the owner informing him that he is not permitted to park in this location and advised him that he has a legal duty to register the vehicle with the DVLA once it has been in this country for six months."