Blue badge holder wins two-year battle over fine for parking in disabled bay for 83 seconds

A man has won his two-year against a fine for parking in a disabled bay for just 83 seconds – despite showing an enforcement officer his blue badge.

Garry White parked at the Midland Way Retail Park in Radford, Nottingham, for less than two minutes in 2018 while he left his car to read a parking entrance sign.

But as he turned around he noticed a private parking enforcement officer writing him up a ticket.

White says he showed the parking enforcement officer his blue badge – confirming that he had the right to park in a disabled zone – before being told that he would still have to pay a fine.

The 53-year-old, who suffers from spinal stenosis, says he often has trouble walking and he was “a bit slow and methodical” walking up to the entrance sign as a result.

He said: "Basically I drove in and when I drove in I wasn't aware there was an entrance sign and that said 'private land' but obviously you can't stop as you're driving so I carried on driving and parked up.

"So I walked up to the sign, I'm disabled so I was a bit slow and methodical, and I walked over to the sign to read it, looked back and there was a guy ticketing my car.

"On a video from my dash-cam you can see it was 83 seconds between me leaving my car and them ticketing me.”

White, who lives in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, said the enforcement officer warned him he would face going to court if he did not pay the fine – despite being shown the blue badge.

He sent a copy of his badge as proof of his disability but he says the appeal was rejected – and was told he should have displayed the badge in his car when he left it.

The initial fine of £60 eventually reached more than £200 by the time Mr White found himself in court.

A judge at Derby Combined Court Centre has now dismissed the claims made by the private parking company, Vehicle Control Services, when White showed dash-cam footage of the incident.

Following months of delays the matter was finally resolved in the county court, where White was awarded £1,000 in costs and damages.

White added: "It took the judge less than 10 minutes to dismiss the claim.

"It went on for two-and-a-half years, it was just ridiculous.”

The government's rules on Blue Badges states: "The Blue Badge scheme helps those with severe mobility problems who have difficulty using public transport to park close to where they need to go.”

Vehicle Control Services acknowledged a Yahoo News UK request for comment but has yet to provide a response.

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