A disabled woman who was late returning to her car because of her fall has had her £100 fine quashed.
Jeanne Young was 16 minutes late getting back to the car park in Hull and she claimed that parking fines unfairly punish disabled people after she was twice turned down on appeal.
Jeanne told the Hull Daily Mail that she tried to appeal the fine as she’d had a fall on the way back to her vehicle. This slowed her down and she then needed to wait before driving because she has a heart condition.
The paper reported that in her first appeal to Smart Parking, Jeanne hadn’t remembered the fall as the fine notice was issued a month after the contravention. In a subsequent appeal to an independent authority she was turned down even after describing the circumstances.
Jeanne said: “I couldn’t believe it when the letter came through, I couldn’t even remember being late back to my car so I appealed and said I thought disabled people had more time with a blue badge.
“The first appeal was turned down and I told my daughter about it and she reminded me that the day of the fine was when I’d had a fall.
“Disabled people take a bit longer doing things anyway and lots of shops still had Covid restrictions at that time so it was only one or two in at a time.
“I had a fall going back to the car park because of my mobility, when I got to the car I had to wait for my heart to calm down because I have a condition and it wouldn’t have been safe to drive.”
After Jeanne’s initial appeal against the fine was turned down she turned to Parking on Private Land Appeals (POPLA) with the full details of her fall but was turned down once again.
Jeanne said: “When I went on Facebook to look the company up I saw about 80 percent of the complaints were from disabled people, it is vulnerable people that are being caught out by this most of the time.
“There needs to be a bit more understanding and a bit more empathy from these companies when it comes to blue badge holders, it isn’t fair and it’s not right. ”
A Smart Parking spokesperson told the Mail: “Smart Parking operate a BPA audited appeals service, and we encourage motorists to contact us if they feel they have been incorrectly charged.
“Ms Young did appeal to us, but made no mention of having an accident. However, now we have been given this additional information we have cancelled the charge as an act of goodwill.”
