Blue Badge holder’s fight to overturn fine
A DERBYSHIRE motorist was fined for parking in a disabled spot, despite showing a parking officer his Blue Badge.
Garry White, 53, from Ilkeston, parked at the Midland Way Retail Park in Radford, Nottingham, for 83 seconds as he left his vehicle to read a parking sign.
When he turned around, a parking enforcement officer was writing him a ticket. Despite confirming with him that he had a right to park there with his Blue Badge, he was told he would still have to pay the fine.
Garry, of Ilkeston, who suffers from spinal stenosis, often has trouble walking and is allowed to park in the disabled spots. He said: “When I drove in I wasn’t aware there was an entrance sign and that said ‘private land,’ but obviously you can’t stop as you’re driving so I carried on and parked up.
“I walked over to the sign – I’m disabled, so I was a bit slow and methodical – to read it, looked back and there was a guy ticketing my car.
“On a video from my dashcam you can see it was 83 seconds between me leaving my car and them ticketing me. So I went back to the car with my Blue Badge in my hand...
I’m showing him my badge and he says I would be going to CCJ [county court judgement] if I didn’t pay it. Basically, I just thought this is nonsense, got in my car and drove off.”
Garry was initially fined £60, but decided to take the matter to court, by which time it had reached more than £200.
A judge at Derby Combined Court Centre eventually dismissed the claims made by the private parking company, Vehicle Control Services, when Garry showed dashcam footage of the incident, which happened not far from the University of Nottingham. Garry was eventually awarded £1,000 in costs and damages following a two-year battle to get the fine overturned.
Garry said: “I sent the court a link to this video that I uploaded on YouTube. It took the judge less than ten minutes to dismiss the claim.”
He added: “It went on for twoand-a-half years, it was just ridiculous.”
The Government’s rules on Blue Badges state: “The Blue Badge scheme helps those with severe mobility problems who have difficulty using public transport to park close to where they need to go.”
Vehicle Control Services was approached for comment but did not respond to our requests.