Disabled spaces and towing

[efreeti]

Hello all,

 

I am new to the forum and hope someone can help.

 

Just before Christmas my car was towed from a disbaled parking space in Manchester at about 9.45 at night. Most of the street is standard parking bays and I was running late so just parked in the first space I saw, as it happens there were plenty of "legal" spaces on the same street but I managed to park in the disabled spot.

 

So after working out that my car had been towed rather stolen I went and paid the release fee of about £150. I wondered if there were any grounds to try and get my money back based on any of the following points...

 

a> the car was removed even though it was not causing an obstruction

 

b> it seems as though the car was towed within a very short time of it

being spotted. Maybe within an hour

 

c> the parking sign did not have any times marked on it, it simply said something like "disabled parking only", the rest of the street is free parking after 6pm.

 

I wouldn't normally bother too much about it as I was parking illegally and certainly deserved a ticket but being towed away late at night when there were loads of other empty parking spaces (standard and disabled) on the street just seems a bit extreme.

 

The other thing which was on my mind is that if the same thing had happened to my girlfriend she would have been stuck in a dodgy area of Manchester, on her own in the middle of the night which seems like a very harsh punishment for such a small mistake!

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Jim

[M the Merciless]

a> the car was removed even though it was not causing an obstruction

 

- Yes, it was. It was stopping a disabled person from parking in a spot reserved for them. Whether there were other avaialble spaces is irrelevant.

 

b> it seems as though the car was towed within a very short time of it

being spotted. Maybe within an hour - Irrelevant. They could tow you away after 5 mns, and still be totally right to do so.

 

c> the parking sign did not have any times marked on it, it simply said something like "disabled parking only", the rest of the street is free parking after 6pm. - A disabled space is 24/7, because disabled people are disabled 24/7.

 

I wouldn't normally bother too much about it as I was parking illegally and certainly deserved a ticket but being towed away late at night when there were loads of other empty parking spaces (standard and disabled) on the street just seems a bit extreme. - Irrelevant.

 

The other thing which was on my mind is that if the same thing had happened to my girlfriend she would have been stuck in a dodgy area of Manchester, on her own in the middle of the night which seems like a very harsh punishment for such a small mistake! - Small to YOU, not small to the disabled person who might not have been able to park. The fact that there were other free parking spots is, yet again, irrelevant. One would hope that your g/friend would be less careless, for her own safety.

[efreeti]

Thanks for the reply M but I was hoping for a bit more constructive info about towing laws rather than what seems to be your personal opinion of my misdemeanour. The "disabled people are disabled 24/7" comment was particularly useful, thanks for that.

 

If anyone could point me at a source of real information regarding what constitutes an "obstruction" it would be really helpful. I think I saw a post relating to "violation of human rights" in ref to cars being towed somewhere as well but can't find it now.

 

The idea of vulnerable people (elderly, parent & child etc) being stuck in a dangerous part of a city as a result of a minor traffic offence such as having no car tax or illegal parking, is really interesting. Forcing somebody to walk through Ardwick (Manchester's red light district and all round nasty place) just because they forgot to tax their car last week does seem really really unfair!