Parking ticket given when parked in a dedicatd disabled parking bay!!!

[Lighttouch]

I'm furious and need to let off steam!

I went into my local town today purely to get some fresh air, a coffee and read the paper. This town has the dubious honour of having the highest number of parking tickets issued - and that's why shop traders are leaving in their droves.

I wanted to park near a coffee shop and knew where some disabled parking spaces wetre near the market. Today wasn't market day. I avoided the loading bays and parked in a dedicated blue badge parking spot and displayed my badges on the dashboard as I've done before.

I returned an hour later to discover I'd got a ticket for 'inappropriate use of the permit' - What! The bastards - I'm not an aggressive person but at that moment I could quite happily of ripped somebody's head off - preferably a traffic wardens!!

How petty. An empty road, I wasn't obstructing anything and I was parked in a legitimate parking bay - bloody stupid. I'm sure these traffic wardens have daily quotas or targets to reach by hook or by crook.

4,400 tickets were issued in my local town centre last year - that's 12 tickets a day!!

I will be writing to the council - not that it will help!

Grrrrr

Thanks for listening I'll calm down now and get some tea.

[saintjanet]

I was reading an article in "auto express" about councils that are seeking to Increase their revenue by targeting motorists generally. However many "tickets" are cancelled if you appeal, always assuming you have a valid reason to do so.

I was given a ticket because my "pay and display" sticker fell off the dashboard , i appealed and the ticket was cancelled.

[the jem]

Hi I got a parking ticket at a motorway service station. I was there for 9 hours and for over 7 of those hours I was asleep. I appealed to the people issuing the ticket and I was told I would have to pay it. Although I could not see the signs late at night stating only two hours and there were lost visisble in daylight. I did not see a machine and I did not see any information inside - I know because I looked before deciding to have a sleep. I spoke with Which Legal services and I heard about contractors and operators - two different levels of car park responsibilities - contractors have to work on what operators stipulate. Operators hand ticketing over to the contractors. So I rang the operator who said one of their reasons for a person parking over is sleeping so it should never have been issued. Good Luck with your appeal my experience has been you need to appeal twice! All the best.

[treborc]

If you parked in a disabled parking bay and you put up your badges then what was the parking ticket for.

Sadly most motorways service areas have massive restrictions and they are owned by companies who make money from ensuring those restrictions are carried out. When I was working driving well over 100,000 miles a year, we would expect to get five or six parking tickets a year the company would pay them for us.

Yesterday I was parking out side my chemist, and I said to the chap giving tickets out, I'm I OK here with a blue badge, he said why are you disabled? problems with my legs, he said yes a lot of people seem to have problems with legs, so I showed him and he said yes sir you can Park here, hell of a life when you have to prove your disabled

[Lighttouch]

In Manchester they do spot checks on people parking up in disabled parking bays. Before you've got out of the car an official might tap on your window and ask to see your blue badge to make sure the photo fits the person driving and parking up. I'm all for it as a lot of people carry counterfeit copies or use their grannies pass. There are fines of up to £1000 for fraudulent use of a badge.

[andypandy]

I agree with you Lighttouch, so sorry to hear about your ticket, hopefully you will get it cancelled. Let us know how you get on

regards

[kafouser]

I assume, Lighttouch, you're talking about Bolton?
They had me too, so now I've stopped shopping there. If you look round the town centre, compared to other towns in the area, you might suspect that others have done the same.

[Lighttouch]

No it's South Manchester. I was there again today but this time parked on double yellow lines displaying my badge and clock - no problems today. I'll be writing to the council next week for what it's worth. No harm in trying.

[treborc]

Of course you have to watch that it's not loading and unloading, because you can get done even with a badge.

About three years ago I parked on double yellow lines and yes it was loading and unloading, the problem was the council were putting up the new signs on that day, six of use were done, two gents were watching the parking attendant waiting for the signs to go up and he pounced . We had to go to court but in the end the council stated that although they did not accept the attendant was wrong they would revoke the tickets, nice of them...

[Lighttouch]

I also got done once when I had to park outside my local village's Library. I had to photocopy my blue badge in order to prove I had one in connection with another parking offence. I parked the car by the entrance, walked in, took a photocopy, paid 10p and walked out - it took about 7 minutes. Who was outside - a traffic warden booking me for not displaying a blue badge with the clock.

I explained why it wasn't on display but it was too late - all he offered to do was take a photo of me holding the blue badge stood by the car. I wrote in but they didn't let me off. So it cost me £35 for a photocopy of a blue badge I needed to get out of paying another parking offence that I was let off.