Blue badge displayed but still got parking ticket

wildlife

This morning in Sainsbury's car park all the disabled places were full so we parked in a none disabled place with the blue badge clearly displayed and the clock showing the time of arrival. It's only the 2nd time I've used it.On exiting the store at only 25 mins later we had a parking penalty stuck to the window. Rang the council this afternoon who checked the badge number was registered and they told us what to do to challenge the decision. How annoying is this and on top of all the other fights to get justice. Am feeling a bit victimized right now. We clearly had a blind parking attendant. How can we prevent this happening in the future? Maybe make a big blown up copy and display that as well?  

anaqi

I'm sorry you've had this problem.  Different car parks have different rules and it's always best to check.  Don't just assume because you display a Blue Badge that parking will be free.  Some private car parks, including hospitals, charge everyone regardless of whether you have a Blue Badge or not.

Some car parks allow free parking for disabled ONLY if you park in a disabled bay.  If you park in an ordinary bay you may have to pay even if you are displaying the badge.  This might be why you got a ticket.  

If you want to avoid tickets in future I recommend always checking the rules which should be displayed at the pay and display machine.

Markmywords

I once got a ticket for forgetting to set the clock. While I accept this was wrong it is not a punishable offence. The council's contractor did cancel it when I appealed although they had a right moan.

Matilda

I once got a ticket because my Blue Badge was out of date.  I hadn't noticed and my local authority had stopped sending reminders because they didn't want to encourage people to apply!  I appealed and the ticket was cancelled.

mojocain

Yes, everyone, anaqii is right, always check a carpark's rules. They are not all same. Hope wildlife wins appeal etc.

wildlife

It was a council car park and the reason given was that there was no clock displayed. The ticket was stuck just above the blue badge and clock correctly positioned to be clearly seen through the window. After a conversation with a lady at the council we are confident we will win the appeal but unfortunately that will not stop the blind parking attendant from doing this to someone else tomorrow or any other time.. 

wildlife

HI, The ticket was cancelled but the council said if the same thing happened again in similar circumstances we would not get let off. So we tell the truth, we do nothing wrong. The parking attendant is in the wrong but we get treated like we staged the whole thing! Why does everyone treat us like liars?