Blue Badge

Honest John Back Room » Legal matters
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Sat 9 Jun 2012 02:16
Blue Badge - skittles

My mother is 80, has heart, back and walking problems and so has a blue badge.

Recently we parked in a disabled bay, it was 5pm and our car was the only one on the street, walked away from the car and two minutes later realized that we had forgotten to display the blue badge. So I walked back to the car and a traffic warden on a motorbike had arrived and was already issuing a ticket.

I showed the guy the blue badge, he said he could not cancel the ticket but to write and explain what happened.

This I did, but the following day I got a email saying the council would not cancel the fine as we can not park in a disabled bay without displaying a badge.

Do I have grounds to appeal?

The photographs taken by the traffic warden would show the blue badge in the window where I placed it on my return?

Any help or advice appraciated!

Edited by skittles on 09/06/2012 at 02:18

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Sat 9 Jun 2012 08:32
Blue Badge - Dwight Van Driver
As the h9older of Blue Badge you will be aware of
the terms and conditions attached to it. One being
that it has to be displayed for obvious reasons.

You did not comply so you have to have your knuckles
rapped by the heartless and porky pie society we live
in.

You can pay and get it over at the reduced rate, or

...don't pay, wait for the Notice to Owner and make
a further appeal to the Council setting out all the
facts. You might reach some one with a 'heart' and
believe you and cancel.

If not then you will get a Notice of Rejection at
which you can either pay or take the matter to the
Parking Adjudicator.

But as I say... you wus in the wrong.

dvd
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Sat 9 Jun 2012 09:39
Blue Badge - spannerman

Hello, I had a similar incident where the disbled parking charges policy had changed from being free to being charged.

I have no problem with paying and personally don't see why disbled parking should be treated in any other way than being nearer to the shops and wider bays.

I decided to appeal as it had been free for the previous 12years that I had parked there and did not see any signs notifying any changes. I sent quite a long explanation of how I had no intention of deliberatly depriving them of my payment and offered to pay the fee.

The reply was short, ' I should read the terms and conditions posted by the ticket machine on every visit '.

Is your mothers car taxed as disbled ? If it is the warden could have seen that on the tax disc.

It wouldn't do any harm to appeal, but don't delay payment in the mean time otherwise the fee will go up.

Alternatively if you feel strongly, you could contact a local newspaper :-)

Good luck, but don't let it get you down, just another example of the times we live in.. p.s. mine was also a council car park.

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Sat 9 Jun 2012 09:46
Blue Badge - RT

Appeal it - but accept that you did technically contravene the regulations and so should accept any eventual penalty gracefully.

As the traffic warden took the photos AFTER the Blue Badge had been put in place, there is a lack of evidence, ie there's only his word and your explanation.

I'm not unsympathetic - I too have a Blue Badge and sometimes forget to display it !!

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