A COUPLE of months ago I read an article regarding the inordinate number of parking tickets Trafford council were issuing (something I was already well aware of since I have been on the receiving end a number of times). It was interesting to note that opinion was that the council are using parking offences to bolster their revenue - something which I wholeheartedly agree with.

I thought you may be interested to know of my latest offence. On 10th March this year I parked my car in the Regent Road car park in a Disabled Bay. I was running late for an appointment and quickly put my disabled cards on the dashboard. On my return I paid the required parking fee of £5 and returned to my car only to find a parking ticket. It would seem that my cards had fallen from the dashboard.

I immediately wrote a letter to parking services at Trafford explaining the situation and enclosing a copy of my parking receipt, a copy of my tax disc which clearly states that it is for a disabled driver and a copy of my blue badge asking them to waive the charge since clearly I was entitled to park there and I had paid the required fee.

However, they wrote back to say that it was a legal requirement in that car park to display the blue badge and therefore the charge would stand. I recalled seeing no such notice on any of the notice boards around where I parked, I returned to the car park and took photos of the signs around the area where I parked.

I wrote back to them to advise this and once again asked that they waive the charge. Their response was once again to state that because the badge was not on display they would not waive the charge and that I should not respond again to them until I received a 'Notice to Owner' document. To date I have not yet received this document but am adamant that I will not pay this fine. I feel that since I am disabled and provided them with a copy of the blue badge together with the parking receipt and disabled tax disc and that it does not state on the notices that failure to display the blue badge will result in a parking fine they could and indeed should have waived this charge. Are you aware if this has happened others?

Sheila McNab, Lymm