Hundreds caught out every year in disabled bay for individual residents

Islington Gazette: Confusing: Sign has seen hundreds of disabled people get parking ticketsConfusing: Sign has seen hundreds of disabled people get parking tickets (Image: Archant)

A disabled pensioner whose wife had driven him to hospital for a blood test was given a ticket – despite parking in a marked disabled bay.

Registered blue badge holder David Eton, 70, couldn’t believe it when he was given a penalty charge notice whilst going for a check up at the Whittington Hospital.

But despite signs outside the bays in Magdala Avenue indicating they are for people with disabilities, they are actually only for disabled drivers who live on that road.

In the past few years hundreds of disabled people could have been caught out, with Islington Council raking in up to £50,000 a year in the process.

Mr Eton, who suffers from back problems and is recovering from a stroke and a heart attack, said: “A disabled bay should be a disabled bay.

“It’s like they are taking the mickey.

“I can hardly move so my wife took me down to hospital. She has to hold my hand to take me up escalators. We stopped in a disabled bay.

“When we came down we had a ticket. I couldn’t believe it.

“What do they want from me?

“I worked all my life, but now I am retired and I get £140 to pay for food, bills, petrol. I can’t afford this.

“It just doesn’t make sense, I can’t understand it.”

Plucky blind pensioner Elizabeth Jones, 86, took the town hall to task when she was caught in the same spot in 2013.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request she submitted revealed the council dished out a whopping 414 at the bays in 2012.

A council spokesman said they were unable to obtain figures for the bays for 2014.

He added: “This parking space is one of three bays allocated to specific individual residents.

“The residents who have permission to park there have been medically assessed and need a dedicated parking space in this location.

“We need to make sure these bays are always available for the authorised residents, and whilst we are sorry a ticket was issued in this case, we believe the signs and road markings are clear.”