Outpatient’s parking battle
HOW on earth was a disabled NHS outpatient left to reach desperation point after she was ensnared in the tentacles of APCOA, her hospital’s parking operator and penalised for its error? The firm is employed by Luton and Dunstable Hospital and its shameful treatment of Blue Badge motorist Hayley Brown was inexcusably incompetent.
The wrong was only rectified after Crusader got involved seven months after she received a ticket.
By then Hayley, who was injured in a serious road accident some years ago and still suffers pain and anxiety, was very distressed.
Her evidence had been ignored and demands from APCOA’s debt enforcer ZZPS to pay the mounting fine was adding to her misery and health struggles.
“I turn to you as I don’t know where else to go, please help,” was Hayley’s plea to Crusader when she explained how she had parked in a disabled parking bay before a hospital appointment.
“For the first time in the eight years since I have had a badge I omitted to display it, I’m in a lot of pain and forgot,” she explained.
When she returned she saw that this failure had triggered a ticket so sent in proof of her badge and appointment. Six weeks later APCOA accepted that but told her she was still on the hook as she had failed to purchase a pay-and-display ticket and show it.
However, like many NHS sites, the bay where Hayley was stationed operates on a pay-on-foot basis. Visitors take their entry ticket with them and pay inside the hospital before exiting. Large boards evidence that so when Hayley replied she enclosed a photo.
“I didn’t want to antagonise them so I politely pointed out that it was impossible for me to pay and display,” she says. “They mentioned a separate appeal but I’d done nothing wrong. I didn’t hear any more.” In May though she got a demand from debt enforcer ZZPS demanding she pay up.
Dutifully she wrote to ZZPS but was shunted back to APCOA which didn’t reply to her guaranteed delivery letter. ZZPS then told her the company had confirmed she was still wrong and owed over £100.
“They seemed determined to nail me no matter what, I was so scared,” says Hayley.
Like her we were appalled at how the companies cast her aside. After all, being entrusted to manage a hospital site with vulnerable people should have made them extra aware of the particular sensitivities.
We also thought Luton and Dunstable should know, given the growing public disquiet about parking charges in hospitals and calls for them to be scrapped.
How counterproductive, we thought, for the NHS to use public money to pay a company that failed a patient, suffering from anxiety, so she felt more stressed and may need more treatment. However Hayley’s time of eating humble pie was definitely over, we told all three. The operator then stepped in, saying: “We issued a parking charge notice as the Blue Badge was not displayed. We have since cancelled the charge as a gesture of goodwill.
“Ensuring the wellbeing of all our customers is one of our leading priorities. We will look into our processes to see if improvements can be made in future.”
Luton and Dunstable Foundation Trust said: “As a gesture of goodwill the charge was cancelled and APCOA have apologised for an administrative error which meant the appeal process was prolonged.”
“This has been so bad I’ve been unable to sleep so I can’t thank you enough,” Hayley said.
But neither of us buy the “gesture of goodwill”. A phrase that although technically correct, implies generosity we find here misplaced.
When disabled people provide proof of their Blue Badge and right to park, the expectation is any charges are cancelled.
Hayley’s name has been changed