Shirley Jackson with her husband Alan

Woodford Green disabled woman ‘cannot take any more’ over parking dispute

Amanda Nunn Thursday, June 14, 2012
8:00 AM

A 77-year-old disabled woman from Woodford Green said she “cannot take any more” after a seven- month dispute over a parking ticket.

Shirley Jackson was given the ticket in November after parking on a single yellow line but says her blue disabled badge was clearly shown.

She was parked in Snakes Lane East, Woodford Green, while picking up a prescription when a council CCTV car took a photo of her vehicle.

Mrs Jackson, said: “I’m at my wits’ end. The letter said I didn’t have my blue badge on display, but it was. This has been going on for months and I feel really ill.”

She said the picture she was sent to prove she was parked illegally was of such a poor quality that it is not clear whether the badge was in the car or not.

She added: “I tried to get a better view by taking it to a photographer’s shop. It has cost me a lot more than the original fine.

“The badge is stuck on the windscreen with Sellotape so it cannot move, but they keep saying it was not there.”

In England and Wales disabled badge-holders can generally park on single and double yellow lines as long as there is no ban on loading or unloading.

Mrs Jackson said: “We stopped for minutes to get medicine.

“They have made a mistake.

“We wrote to the court, which revoked all the excess but left the original fine.”

She has refused to pay the fine as she believes it was wrongly given, and she has made an appeal to an independent adjudicator: “The point is they should not have put this fine on me in the first place.

“It’s cost me a lot more than the original £55 in letters and paying for cabs and you cannot put a price on the stress it has caused.”

A Redbridge Council spokesman said: “[The council] continually monitors performance of our mobile enforcement vehicles including the potential display of a disabled badge.”