Disabled grandmother who was given just four minutes to get pay and display ticket, will go to court after council officers refuse to over turn ticket.
A disabled grandmother from Harold Hill is going to court over her parking ticket after being given a grand total of just four minutes to get a pay and display ticket for her car.
The grandmother had gone to the Hilldene shopping centre back in January and found the first ticket machine out of order, so had to walk to the top of the hill to get a ticket. When she returned to her car she saw the traffic warden about to ticket her and told him that the first machine wasn’t working so it had taken her time to get to the second machine as she walks with a stick. However, the ruthless warden who is believed to have been hiding in the front of the shops waiting for shoppers to arrive, did not engage in conservation and merely told the grandmother to ‘challenge it’.
Since then the disabled grandmother has challenged every decision and is now going to court.
She told the Havering Daily: “I’m disgusted that I was only given four minutes to get a parking ticket. I walk with a stick due to very bad arthritis and it takes me a few minutes to get my legs working. The first ticket machine was out of order so I had to walk to the top of the hill to get to the second ticket machine.
“The warden could clearly see what I was doing, he was hiding in the shop fronts waiting for drivers to arrive and then ticket them. It really is disgusting. You are supposed to be given ten minutes to get a parking ticket, I was given just four before he placed a parking fine on my car. The timing shows he gave me just four minutes to walk to the ticket machine.”
The Harold Hill grandmother is now suffering with anxiety and scared about bailiffs coming to knock on her door.
“This is giving me further mental health issues and worries. I have struggled to sleep and am living in fear of this parking ticket and what is going to happen next. I don’t think it’s right that I have to pay £90 for a ticket that I clearly did not deserve. They want people to go to the local shopping centres to keep our high streets going but yet when they try and park there are wardens out there like this.”
The disabled lady wrote to the council leader but he has not been able to help as it is the council officers who have the ability to over turn the decisions and they have refused to do so despite the many appeals.
“I am so disappointed and angry with Havering council, this is really awful. You cannot give a person just four minutes to walk to the top of the hill and back before issuing them with a fixed penalty notice. I’ve lived in this area all my life and this is how they treat people, disgusting really.”
This is another one for our beloved Leader, though, we’ve not seen nor heard a lot from him for quite some time; thank goodness. However, Mr White is always championing the underdog and doesn’t like the Havering Council being seen as a bunch of ‘ne’er-do-wells. As I understand the guidelines Mr White, and the crony in charge of parking, there is a minimum grace period of 5 minutes. These ‘little Hitlers’ who run around issuing parking tickets are supposed to know them, but the way they interpret them leaves a lot to be desired. As long as the driver had the permit to park ticket in her hand and was approaching the vehicle so as to be able to place the ticket in the vehicle, if the time stamp of that ticket was before the time stamp of the penalty charge notice, then the PCN is null and void. The permit to park ticket does not have to be in/on the vehicle for said vehicle to be legally parked, otherwise, how do you get to/from the Pay & Display machine to be able to place the permit to park ticket inside the vehicle? All too often, we’ve seen how the wardens operate in such an underhand way, and it is a damming testament as to why Mr White allows this to continue. He must be so proud of his Parking Department’s actions, but then, he is also proud of the money the PCN’s bring in, even when he knows many of them are issued incorrectly, illegally, and by underhand means. As long as we pay without challenging, they’ll continue to issue PCN’s in such a manner. Remember, we got rid of the last councillor in charge of parking…. we can get rid of this one in the next local elections.