OAP ticketed while she slept in her car
Last updated at 10:05, Saturday, 03 May 2008
A pensioner who suffers from Parkinson’s disease was slapped with a £35 penalty while she slept in her parked car.
The traffic warden dished out the fine to 82-year-old Jean Raine because her orange disabled parking disc had been accidentally displayed upside down.
Miss Raine, who suffers from advanced Parkinson’s disease, was legally parked in a disabled bay but woke to find a ticket stuck to her windscreen. The retired nurse had taken a quick nap in her Vauxhall Corsa after complaining of feeling unwell during a trip to Kendal.
She said: “I cannot understand why the parking attendant didn’t wake me up. I wouldn’t have got a ticket then.”
Miss Raine lives in the nearby village of Burton-in-Kendal.
Miss Raine and her partner of 30 years Martin Westgarth, 88, had gone do to their weekly shop.
Mr Westgarth popped into Booths supermarket for 45 minutes and when he came back found that a South Lakeland Council traffic warden had given Miss Raine a ticket.
He said “We went to the car park at Booths and parked in a disabled space.
“Jean was unwell and remained in the car. I went into Booths and did the shopping, and when I got back to the car there was a ticket on it.
”Why did she get a ticket while she was sitting in the car? Because the card in the window that shows she was disabled, it turns out, was upside down.
“This person who put the ticket on the window didn’t talk to Jean. You would have thought that he would have said something to her.”
The couple appealed to South Lakeland Council but their appeal was rejected.
In the end they paid the fine, but are considering whether to take the case to an independent tribunal.
A council spokesman said:“We do not comment on individual cases. If anyone feels they have reason to challenge a penalty charge notice then they can appeal to the council in the first instance, followed by an appeal to an independent tribunal if they choose.
“Guidance notes issued with the badge and parking disc clearly state that it should be clearly and correctly displayed at all times.”
Recently, a South Lakeland Council parking warden in Kendal was soaked with two buckets of water when he put a ticket on a fishmonger’s van while it was being loaded outside a store.
First published at 09:15, Saturday, 03 May 2008
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Name and shame the "jobsworth" that did it.
View all comments on this article
Have your say
About a day after I heard this story on the local BBC News,I parked my car on the NCP car park at Chester station, paid my ã4.50 at the pay-and-display machine and put the ticket on the top of the dashboard where it was clearly visible. I got back to find it actually covered over by a penalty notice saying saying that the permit wasn't "clearly displayed". Yet the ticket machine printed the wrong date on the ticket when I bought it (the next day's date) while the penalty notice said that the alleged contravention took place not in Chester but in Cheshunt, which is about 180 miles away. I've written in saying I will fight this nonsense in court.
Posted by Julian on 9 May 2008 at 17:10