Doughn't mess with me: how TikTok star Zoë Bread took on Liverpool council

Campaigner calls on city to revoke thousands of parking fines, reports Xavier Greenwood

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It was at 9.28pm on 12 August that Liverpool city council inadvertently declared war.

Zoë Bread, a TikTok creator with more than 1.4 million followers and a knack for running rings around public bodies, had parked in her normal spot on Bixteth Street in the city.

She believed parking was free after 6pm, only to return to find she had been given a ticket and a £25 fine. "Then I told my friend I would destroy Liverpool city council," she said.

The pseudonymous campaigner, who disguises her face with a piece of bread and has reached a wide audience with comedic and often pointed videos about life in Britain, made a video. Then she made more. It became a crusade that evolved into a 10-part saga involving hours of appeals, phone calls and freedom of information (FoI) requests.

What is at issue is whether Bread should have known that the rules had changed in July. Should she have realised that parking was no longer free after 6pm? Bread's position is that while the parking times had been updated on payment machines, they had not been changed on other signs.

It seemed, initially, that Liverpool council was willing to concede this point. It rescinded the fine after Bread filmed signage in the centre where the old hours were on display.

But when Bread publicly argued that this should lead to thousands of other people having their evening penalties cancelled, the council told the BBC the decision to quash the fine was a mistake and did not set a precedent. Bread responded with another video to make clear that she disagrees and that the battle was not over.