Thread: Parking ticket whilst displaying disabled badges

Hello,

I am disabled and obviously use my parking badges for on street parking. I normally use a disabled parking bay outside of my home but recently the bay was full so I had no choice but to park on double yellow lines next to the disabled parking bay.

I set my badges to the time I arrived, however when I returned to my car I had received a ticket. They had issued the ticket at 12:28 and unfortunately I had set my badge slightly incorrectly to just before 13:00. As anyone who uses a blue badge will know the difference between 12:28 and 13:00 on the badge is about 1cm!

I wrote to my local authority requesting they cancel the penalty charge but they responded saying that the badges had to be legally set to the correct time of arrival, which I know is the case. However I am still infuriated that the parking attendant was so petty to issue a ticket for such a minor error and short space of time .

I have now paid the ticket as I did not want the fine to increase but I would be grateful if anyone has any knowledge of whether there is any leeway with regards to the time being set on blue badges. Also any other general advice/tips on this would be great as I would love to pursue this one further.

Thanks in advance.

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In the booklet I got with my wifes blue badge it states.

"Badge holders may usually park on single and double yellow lines for up to three hours in England and Wales or without any time limit in Scotland. Except where there is a ban on loading or unloading."

The NPAS had a case in there 2003/2004 report. A lady parked on double yellow lines with a ban on loading/unloading. To take her husband in a wheel chair into the bank she returned straight the way to remove the car to proper parking place but had a pcn on the window. She appealed and won the case as it was deemed she was boading/alighting and this is allowed even where loading is prohibited.

Some council publish a parking enforcement policy This from one I found on the net " Except on designated clearways and zig-zag (school and pedestrian crossings) restrictions, any vehicle will be allowed a reasonable amount of time to drop-off or pick up passengers irrespective of any waiting or loading restriction in force. It is deemed that two minutes is sufficient for this unless it involves the elderly, disabled person, young children or large amounts of luggage etc." It does not say how much time should be allowed.

This maybe of help

Evington

I have had tickets in the past for dropping people off when on DY lines etc. To be honest I would be surprised if there were such exemptions. Can anyone reference any cases to back up the previous post?

In the Joint Annual Report of the Parking Adjudicators 2003/2004. Page 10 of that report details the case of the lady boarding/alighting from a car on DY with loading restrictions, plus she was using a blue badge.

However the court are not interested with what happens at the NPAS.

It all boils down to who issued the ticket.

Evington

Here we go again, lovely traffic warden has given me another ticket whilst displaying my blue badges!

Following my previous ticket I decided to get a resident's parking permit for my street as I thought this would make my life a bit easier. However my street doesn't always have resident bays available and so I had to park on the double yellow lines again (same place as where I got my original ticket) and consequently got another ticket!

I parked on the double yellows at 3pm on the 8th and set my blue badge accordingly. However I didn't leave my home again until 11am on the 9th, mainly because I wasn't feeling very well. Surely the warden/council cant expect a disabled person to continuallly check to see if a parking bay has become availble or go to their car to adjust their blue badges?

Anyway I have written to the council today asking them to cancel the penalty charge on the grounds that it isn't my fault the resident bays were full and that I had no choice but to leave my car where I did. I have a feeling they will reject this (cause they are money-grabbing gits) on the same grounds as my original ticket, that is my blue badges weren't set correctly when the ticket was issued.

There is no way I am paying this penalty charge even if they take me through the courts so all advice welcome on what to do if they do reject my appeal.

Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by bribri

I have had tickets in the past for dropping people off when on DY lines etc. To be honest I would be surprised if there were such exemptions. Can anyone reference any cases to back up the previous post?

You certainly want to fight those. Double yellow lines indicate a restriction on waiting - which is leaving the vehicle unattended with the engine off - it's perfectly legal to stop - vehicle attended with the engine running - on double yellow lines. There is no stopping on clearways, areas with no stopping signs, red routes, zig zags at schools/ped crossings etc.

Originally Posted by danmav

Here we go again, lovely traffic warden has given me another ticket whilst displaying my blue badges!

Following my previous ticket I decided to get a resident's parking permit for my street as I thought this would make my life a bit easier. However my street doesn't always have resident bays available and so I had to park on the double yellow lines again (same place as where I got my original ticket) and consequently got another ticket!

I parked on the double yellows at 3pm on the 8th and set my blue badge accordingly. However I didn't leave my home again until 11am on the 9th, mainly because I wasn't feeling very well. Surely the warden/council cant expect a disabled person to continuallly check to see if a parking bay has become availble or go to their car to adjust their blue badges?

Anyway I have written to the council today asking them to cancel the penalty charge on the grounds that it isn't my fault the resident bays were full and that I had no choice but to leave my car where I did. I have a feeling they will reject this (cause they are money-grabbing gits) on the same grounds as my original ticket, that is my blue badges weren't set correctly when the ticket was issued.

There is no way I am paying this penalty charge even if they take me through the courts so all advice welcome on what to do if they do reject my appeal.

Thanks in advance.

Well as expected the Council has responded saying they can find no grounds for cancelling the Penalty Charge as I was in breach of the Road Traffic Act 1991 because my disabled badges were out of time.

I don't dispute that "technically" I have breached the Act. However I believe that the Parking Attendant has acted unfairly and without common sense (I guess they were just thinking about their commission!) in issuing the ticket. Also the Council seem to have completely ignored the fact there were no resident bays available in my street at the time I parked, I really don't know where they expect me to park when all the bays are full.

I am writing to my local MP and newspaper highlighting this situation and in my view the targeting of disabled drivers by their attendants. However I am unsure where I stand with appealing their decision as under the Act I am only able to appeal for certain grounds and like I said I have "technically" breached the Act.

Any thoughts on how to deal with this one are most welcome.

I have no advice to add about fighting your current parking ticket apart from go to your councilors or MP. I had my car towed away, quite rightly. But the councilor was able to get it cancelled because of 'other circumstances' i.e. compassionate grounds. There was nowhere to park on my street, so I parked on single yellows and was then 10 minutes late for the start of loading restrictions. Basically I received a blue badge 4 days later at which point they couldn't have towed me.

To prevent future tickets, have you applied for your own disabled bay?

No I haven't applied for my own disabled bay and I hadn't even thought about it, but I will certainly look into it now.

Plymouth Council issued the tickets, I have checked it fully and all details are correct.

Originally Posted by danmav

Well as expected the Council has responded saying they can find no grounds for cancelling the Penalty Charge as I was in breach of the Road Traffic Act 1991 because my disabled badges were out of time.

I don't dispute that "technically" I have breached the Act. However I believe that the Parking Attendant has acted unfairly and without common sense (I guess they were just thinking about their commission!) in issuing the ticket. Also the Council seem to have completely ignored the fact there were no resident bays available in my street at the time I parked, I really don't know where they expect me to park when all the bays are full.

I am writing to my local MP and newspaper highlighting this situation and in my view the targeting of disabled drivers by their attendants. However I am unsure where I stand with appealing their decision as under the Act I am only able to appeal for certain grounds and like I said I have "technically" breached the Act.

Any thoughts on how to deal with this one are most welcome.

There is nothing 'technical' about it. You have a concessionary time of parking due to the disabled badge and you have substantially exceeded that time. The contravention is absolute. There is no grace period. If the period is 3 hours and you think that morally they should cancel when you have been there for 20 hours? At what point would you accept the ticket? 24 hours, 48 hours, a couple of weeks?

I do not see that they have targeted you at all, your vehicle was there for nearly 7 times the permitted period. You have contravened the parking regs and admitted it here. As long as the pcn is otherwise valid, I don't think that you have any grounds to do anything other than pay up for a lawfully issued ticket.

I am well aware that I exceeded the allocated time limit, however you seem to have completely missed the point of my argument. I had no choice but to park my car where I did as there were no resident parking bays available, if there had been I would have parked in one. I was not well on the day in question and spent almost all of the 20 hours you mention in bed, and was in no state to continually check to see if a resident's bay had become available.

The parking attendant would have seen that I had a resident's parking permit and if they had any common sense and deceny they would realise I parked where I did to because I had no choice.

As for the question you ask about what point I would accept the ticket, my answer is never. I think the 3 hour rule is ridiculous and serves no purpose at all. If a disabled driver is not causing any kind of obstruction then they should be allowed to park for as long as they like using their blue badge.

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my local council charge £60 to paint a disabled badge on a parking space, they also tell you they can't enforce it so whats the piont.

Evington