Welcome to Brighton ... here's a parking ticket

... and if you are disabled you are an easy target.

Wayne Dexter took his 79-year-old mother-in-law on a trip in the summer and parked in a disabled bay in Marine Drive, Brighton, so she would not have to walk very far to the beach.

Joan Maggs, from Southend, is disabled and partially sighted so didn't realise she had put her disabled badge the wrong way up on the dashboard as they left.

A ticket was issued.

Now you could see the Parking Attendant's point ... if it wasn't clearly displayed then he can issue BUT as soon as the council are made aware that the badge is a valid one then it should be cancelled.

There has been no attempt to deceive, just a simple error. There can be no argument that the vehicle was 'interfering with traffic flow' or any of the other spurious claims used by councils to justify the national decriminalised parking rip-off.

So, you would think that as soon as Brighton Parking Services were aware they would exercise their discretionary powers and cancel the ticket.

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Hove City Council, said the attendant had no way of checking the expiry date on the badge which meant the parking ticket issued was considered to be valid.
She said it was policy that fines were issued to all cars which did not clearly display their disabled badge in the front windscreen.

They refused Wayne's appeal AFTER he had given them proof of a valid badge and therefore failed to apply any discretion. We have offered to handle the case on a point of principle (and as you may know, we have been unable to get a Brighton ticket ourselves for some reason here) ... and we will win and at the same time shine a very bright light on Brighton's regime.

Meanwhile, read the report in the Brighton Argus here