On a summer evening in August 2025, Zoë Bread, a masked campaigner known for her witty, bread-themed TikTok videos, parked her car on Bixteth Street in Liverpool’s city centre. At 9:28pm, she received a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN)—a ticket that would soon become the centerpiece of a viral social media campaign and a heated debate about parking policy, signage, and the power of online activism in the digital age.
Earlier that summer, Liverpool City Council had quietly changed its parking regulations. Where once drivers enjoyed free parking after 6pm, new rules mandated payment from 7am until 11pm across the City Centre Controlled Parking Zone. The change, implemented in July 2025, was not without controversy: according to BBC reporting, nearly 90% of local residents had voiced their opposition during the council’s consultation process. Still, the council pressed ahead, ending a long-standing evening perk for city-goers and residents alike.
Zoë Bread’s encounter with the new rules was hardly unique. Through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, she discovered that thousands of similar fines had been issued in Liverpool’s city centre since mid-July—tickets that, until the rule change, would have been unthinkable at those hours. But what set Bread apart was her response: she took to TikTok, donning her trademark bread mask, and began documenting not only her own fine but the broader confusion swirling around the new policy.
In her videos, Bread highlighted what she called a “lack of clear, visible signage” alerting motorists to the updated hours. She argued that, given the city’s “long-standing prior practice,” it was “reasonable to assume that parking remained permitted” after 6pm. Her footage didn’t just show parking meters and signs—it also captured the uncertainty among some parking wardens themselves, who seemed unsure about when the new rules had actually come into effect.
For Bread, the issue was about more than just her own £60 ticket. She saw a systemic problem. “They’re clearly hoping that it will catch people out—because if they didn’t want to catch people out, they would have just put signs up that said ‘New Enforcement Hours’,” she told the BBC. “They put small-print hours on the machines, but you only go to the machines if you’re going to buy a ticket. If you park when you think it’s free, then you don’t go and look at the machine, obviously.”
Her campaign struck a nerve, racking up thousands of views and comments from frustrated drivers who’d found themselves in similar predicaments. The story echoed an earlier battle Bread had fought with Manchester City Council over what she described as “confusing” pay-and-display signage near a privately-run car park. In that case, Manchester authorities ultimately conceded that signage “could be clearer” and quashed not only her fine but a number of others issued on similar grounds.
Back in Liverpool, Bread’s campaign seemed to gain traction. After she formally appealed her fine, the council rescinded it on a discretionary basis. Bread interpreted this as a tacit admission of fault. “It felt like they’ve just co-signed everything I’ve been saying,” she told the BBC. “It’s just kind of funny, because it puts them in a spot where they sort of have to cancel everyone’s [fines]—that’s how I see it. They just need to cancel all the tickets and put a sign up that says: ‘New hours in force’ on every road.”
But the council saw things differently. On October 29, 2025, Liverpool City Council issued a public statement clarifying that the decision to quash Bread’s fine was “incorrect” and “does not set a precedent” for similar penalties to be rescinded. “Having reviewed the case in question, we have found that the PCN was cancelled on a discretionary basis. In this case, the decision did not follow the expected process and was issued incorrectly,” a council spokesperson told the BBC. “We have spoken with the staff involved to review and offer guidance for similar cases. The outcome of this appeal does not set a precedent for any other PCNs.”
The council emphasized that responsibility ultimately lies with motorists. “It is the responsibility of all motorists to ensure that they are following local parking regulations when they park their vehicle. Liverpool City Council provides clear information on payment machines for on-street parking. The information is also available on the council’s website. An individual may be subject to a PCN if they do not present a valid parking ticket.” Staff, the council added, would be instructed not to make similar discretionary cancellations in the future.
The tension between Bread’s grassroots activism and the council’s official stance reflects a broader struggle playing out in cities across the UK. As local authorities seek to boost revenue and manage congestion, parking rules are frequently updated—sometimes with less-than-ideal communication. For drivers, the result can be confusion, frustration, and, increasingly, a turn to social media for solidarity and redress.
Bread remains convinced that the council’s approach to signage was, at best, inadequate and, at worst, a deliberate effort to catch people out. “If they didn’t want to catch people out, they would have just put signs up that said ‘New Enforcement Hours’,” she argued. Her videos, with their blend of humor and indignation, have inspired others to scrutinize local parking policies—and to question whether councils are truly prioritizing clarity and fairness over revenue.
For its part, Liverpool City Council maintains that it has provided sufficient notice. The new enforcement hours are displayed on payment machines and detailed on the council’s website. Yet, as Bread and her supporters point out, many drivers never approach a payment machine if they believe parking is free, and few check the website before a routine evening out. The disconnect between official communication and public perception remains stark.
Looking ahead, the council’s insistence that Bread’s case does not set a precedent leaves thousands of recently fined drivers with little recourse. While some may continue to appeal, citing unclear signage or confusion among wardens, the council’s new guidance to staff suggests such appeals are unlikely to succeed. Instead, the burden remains on motorists to stay abreast of evolving rules—no easy feat in an urban landscape where change seems to be the only constant.
In the end, Zoë Bread’s campaign may not have forced a wholesale reversal of Liverpool’s parking crackdown, but it has shone a light on the power of digital activism, the importance of clear communication, and the everyday challenges faced by city drivers. As debates over parking policy continue to simmer, one thing is certain: in Liverpool, at least, the battle over the humble parking ticket is far from over.
