Hip op patient sees red at fine time

Aug 10 2010 by Denis Brown, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

PARKING fine contester Iris Temple concedes she flouted the law. . . but at the time she didn’t have a leg to stand on.

Following an operation to replace both hips in late April, the 64-year-old Perth woman was having mobility issues, hobbling around precariously on walking sticks.

A few days before being fined £50 for parking in a disabled bay, she parked in a standard space, returning to find another vehicle effectively blocking access to her driver’s door.

“It wasn’t the motorist’s fault, but I was unable to manoeuvre in-between the two cars and get into my car, so I had to wait almost half an hour until the owner returned,” she said.

So next time she was in Perth – May 28 – and unwilling to repeat her ordeal, the holiday letting proprietor parked in a disabled bay at Speygate near her destination, despite not having a blue badge on her car.

“I’d looked into getting a blue badge but was told I could only get one if I was disabled permanently, not temporarily as I was at the time,” she added.

“When I parked in the disabled bay, a female parking officer saw me, watched me using my walking sticks to reach the ticket machine and then moving slowly away, in some degree of discomfort.

“But when I came back to my car, I found a £50 fine on the windscreen.”

Although she admits she was in the wrong, she believed her medical condition might prompt Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) to show clemency, withdraw the fine and issue a caution instead.

But after lodging her appeal with PKC, she was advised a doctor’s letter was required to verify her medical treatment and temporary handicap before the request could be considered.

In a June 1 letter to PKC, Dr Bernard Reilly confirmed Mrs Temple’s hips were replaced in late April.

He wrote that while his patient did not qualify for a disabled badge, her temporary disability was “severe”.

“She is unable to get out of or into her car without having the door fully open. This is not possible in a ‘normal’ parking space. She used a disabled parking bay recently for this reason,” he said.

“I wonder if you would excuse her fixed penalty on this occasion as she definitely needed the space and is definitely disabled at the moment.”

Replying, parking operations manager, Fiona Reid, said she sympathised with Mrs Temple’s situation, but as she did not qualify for a blue badge, she should not have used the disabled space.

Suitable alternatives, she suggested, were several parking spots on South Street, positioned in such a way that vehicle access would not have been impeded to either driver or passenger.

She advised Mrs Temple she could appeal the council’s rejection with the Scottish Parking Appeals Service, with the adjudicator’s decision deemed binding for both parties.

A frustrated Mrs Temple insisted that using the South Street spaces – if any were available – would have placed her in danger of being hit by passing vehicles.

She subsequently provided PKC with photographic evidence, asked her surgeon to write the council a letter and also flagged the issue with Capability Scotland and the Scottish Transport Minister.

“I just find the council’s attitude, for the sake of £50, totally OTT, especially as I complied with everything they requested, and despite my circumstances, they still haven’t seen fit to accept my appeal,” she said.

“Maybe I should have just bought one of these fake blue badges you see for sale on eBay.”

A PKC spokesman said he could not comment on the matter as an appeal process was currently under consideration.