A carer has slammed a parking warden after she was slapped with a fine for parking in a hospital drop-off zone – for four MINUTES.
Christine Leavey said it left her feeling like there was a competition to see how many tickets could be issued in an hour.
She was taking her close friend, Rosalyn Briggs, for a check-up at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent.
Christine went to the drop-off zone which allows motorists to park for up to 20 minutes, and used Rosalyn’s disability badge to tell any parking wardens about what time they had arrived.
But outside she found the warden had issued a £20 parking fine, apparently believing the car was not being used to drop off a patient – despite her only being there for a matter of minutes.
Christine said: “We had to come back out as we went into the wrong part of the hospital and I found a parking warden issuing me a ticket.
“I asked him what he was doing as I was legally parked in the drop-off zone.
“He said I couldn’t park there with the disability badge. When I explained to him that we had written our arrival time he just shrugged his shoulders and said ‘Well, it’s been processed now’.
“I couldn’t believe it.”
The warden issued a £20 ticket for the parking offence, which increased to £35 if unpaid within a fortnight, on March 2.
Christine, a former guest house owner, decided to challenge the ticket but had not heard anything in writing to confirm if it has been quashed.
She added: “If I was parked up wrongly I would hold my hands up, but I was parked perfectly within the bay.
“I understand that parking wardens have to do their job, but when they behave and have an attitude like that it makes you think that they are all shysters in a competition to see how many parking tickets they can issue in an hour.
“Rosalyn has been really stressed about the fine and had sleepless nights.
“When elderly patients are going to hospital they could do without the added stress of little Hitlers.”
The car parks are run by the East Kent NHS Trust Parking Services team which has now admitted the parking fine was wrong.
Trust media spokeswoman Stella Jones said: “The trust agrees that this ticket should not have been issued.
“The appeal has been upheld.
“We apologise for any inconvenience or distress caused, and we will be taking steps to ensure that penalty tickets are issued only for genuine breaches of our parking policy.”
ENDS
