Left hand, right hand and traffic wardens

On Monday, December 17, I parked in a disabled bay outside the library in the Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) car park and duly displayed my badge. I have a chronic lung condition which precludes me from walking any distance.

After returning my books and a cup of coffee, I went back to my car to discover a fixed penalty notice attached (£70 or £35 if paid within 14 days). I discovered then that my three-year badge had expired in mid -October and I did not receive the expected reminder.

On my return home, I called WBC and after the initial jobsworth, I was connected to a very helpful lady who was very familiar with the disabled badge office's process. She said that it was normal practice to issue reminders, either in the post or by email (if they have an email address on their system).

She initially could find no record of my badge or my name but after several minutes discovered a partial record on another system.

It seems that some two years ago, they migrated their database to another system and in my case, this was not completed. As a result, they have now expedited the issue of a new badge which should be available in the next few days.

I then wrote to the WBC to appraise them of this and very promptly received a reply from Rebecca Clayton-Brown (Senior Customer Delivery Officer) as follows: “Following your below email, I would like to sincerely apologise for you having not received a renewal letter for your blue badge. We do send these out as letters and when we do have access to emails, we send these electronically.

“We are aware an error has occurred when sending your reminder letter to you, which we are now aware of and will be looking in to, to ensure this does not happen again to anyone else.

“I understand you have discussed this today with my colleague who completed your renewal application, but I did just want to reiterate we are extremely sorry for this.

“We hope to have a response from our Occupational Therapist regarding your application as soon as possible, and also hope your PCN is sorted by our Parking team. Thank you very much for your time and patience with this process.”

I have now received a letter from Wokingham Parking Services( WBC) with an address in Sheffield stating that the circumstances do not merit rescinding the enforcement. In their view, there is no obligation on the part of WBC to send out a reminder and the onus is on the holder to be aware of the expiry date. I feel however that the standard practice of sending reminders shows that the Council feel this is necessary – I for one do not look at the expiry date but only ensure that the clock is set when displaying the badge.

Also it is standard practice to issue reminders, the DVLA with road tax, credit and debit card providers, hospitals and medical practices, and garages for MoTs and service to name but a few. How many of us are that organised to survive without reminders.

The Parking Services have advised that I can appeal in due course when the formal notice to Owner is issued and in the meantime they are unable to enter into any further dialogue on this issue.

Needless to say I will.

In the meantime that in this season of goodwill, Scrooge is alive and well and has moved to Sheffield. Ray Hill, via email