To think my local council are absolutely heartless?

[Esmediamond]

I am regular, have name changed.

Have a ds (7) with Austism, he is diagnosed etc.

I usually drive him to school, park outside and drop off and am in and out before 9.00 am when charging for parking starts.

One day last term he had a huge meltdown as I dropped him off, there is no way I could have left him. I had to stay with him to calm him down, no-one else can do it when he is like this. Eventually managed to calm him and left, got out to my car at around 9.20 am to find a parking ticket on the car. Fair enough I thought, I will appeal it. Later that day another parent told me that they had spoken to the Parking Attendant and said the Mother who owns that car is inside with her disabled child, please don't ticket the car, he did anyway.

So I appealed the local council explaining this with a supporting letter from school. The reply comes back today, the answer is no and not only that but instead of the original £60 it is now £120 as the appeal did not reach them within two weeks of the penalty notice.

I am gutted, I am on my own with dc so this is a massive dent in my finances.

How can they sleep at nights I will never know.

While I do have sympathy with your situation, I think your biggest concern should be that they didn't answer your appeal quickly enough and therefore are doubling your penalty. That I think is much more of an issue, because without a doubt, it's unfair.

But imho, you should pay the reduced fine gracefully, because you know there is a chance you might be held up, and therefore you could prevent the situation by putting money in the meter or whatever. I would acually have alot more sympathy with the situation described earlier with an nt child having an accident, because that could not reasonably have been forseen. Do you get any sort of benefit to help you cope with your child? If so, then that money is meant to be used for extra expenses you incur as a result of the disability, in your case, having to pay for extra parking.

I'm sorry if I am coming across as unsypathetic, but like others have said, we all have reasonable excuses from time to time, and the council can't let everyone off who makes the effort to appeal. I am speaking as the parent of an AS child as well btw, although thankfully I don't have to deal with the issues that you do, I do understand where you are coming from.

I assume you parked in a residents bay, in which case even if you had a blue badge you would still get a ticket.

highland, run and hide, I think you are about to get hammered.

Not all disabilities are visible.

o dear mckenzie, sorry I have annoyed you. I have no idea what a disabled person looks like as everyone looks different. But there are most certainly some people who have nothing wrong with them mobility wise, and who have a blue badge, and I think that takes the mickey.

Hope you can hear me up there on your high horse.

o god, I know not all disabilities are visible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just thought the point of the blue badge was to help people who had mobility problems to get around more easily. I know lots of people who have them and have got them through dubious means, where there is no reason for them to have them, none, at all.
And then there are people like OP who could clearly do with one, who isn't allowed one, and I think that is crazy.

I am 100% aware that not all disabilities are visible and that you cannot assess much by just looking at someone. But you can tell whether they can walk and run. And if you can walk and run and are not a carer, I am not sure what you need a blue badge for.

like I said, run away now while you've still got the chance!

ok, I stand corrected. I am sorry for any offence caused. It was unthinking of me.

Starlight - can we just calm down please. We have all seen perfectly fit people using spaces designed for the disabled. Of course we could presume that all of those people are in some way disabled even if it wasnt visble but we also know that is not true. Some people do use disabled places without being disabled perhaps by using a blue badge from a relatives car or even the car itself. Esmes autistic child and other autistic children SHOULD be entiled to a blue badge, this whole area IMHO should be tightened up. And yes, I also have worries and concerns about people so overweight that they cannot work or use a flight of stairs.

Rocky - with pleasure.

The badge is to make the life of the disabled person easier/safer and to make facilities more accessible. Many of the disabled people who have the badges are not the drivers.

In this case it enabled the carer to stop outside the shop, run in for a sandwhich and run out again, leaving the disabled person where she could see them. Parking 5 minutes up the road is not safe nor satifactory.

Highlandspringerdog - you are beyond belief - auch arrogance and ignorance.

ROcky12 - thanks for that.
I can actually see what starlight is saying though - it is safer to presume that everyone using them is legit, than to presume wrongly that someone is using one when they shouldn't be when in actual fact they have something serious wrong with them.

Though I can be sure about the ones I actually KNOW about!

I really don't think you should be let off your fine tbh. I do appreciate why you were there past 9am, a perfectly valid reason, but as others have said - thus is life. Any child whether Nt or SN may give their parent a reason to need to stay a little longer at morning drop off - unfortunately it's never an excuse to not have to pay your fine.

I do always wonder why so many people scream "go to the local paper" on every third thread on here. If you are going to write again to the council or the local paper then you should complain about not being able to get a blue badge or the huge cost of parking around the school your ds goes to - do not complain about the parking fine as I think they are perfectly justified in not waiving the fine for the reason you have given.

Lastly - if there is nowhere to park around the schoolfor free, what do all the other parents do?

Can

Chippingin -sorry, I have apologised, I hadn't thought about this in any depth.

None of my business - but, er, doesn't highland deserve recognition for apologizing promptly and sensibly?

Are there no more routes of appeal? Could you contact your local councillor and ask him/her to take up the matter on your behalf? Our local council has an email address for parking issues. Maybe yours has the same?

perhaps it needs to be explained in detail what the alternative would have been. Are they suggesting for instance your DS going into total meltdown, you leaving him for the sake of a parking violation?

I don't think parents of NT kids realise how much more expense is involved having a kid with ASD.

If I take my son (6 with ASD/ADHD) shopping in a town centre then we have to park in expensive city centre car parks or there's no way he'll walk further than necessary.

I could leave him at home, is what I'm sure you'll say.

Why should I? He needs to get used to going to different places. It's uncomfortable for him, but actually necessary for him to do this. (And no, I cannot swan around clothes shopping with him in tow)

Having a blue badge would make it easier and cheaper for us.

P.S highlandspringerdog I am actually fat - would I be judged on your criteria if I emerged from a car with a blue badge on it? I might be fat but I'm horribly horribly fit; I've run 2 marathons, 3 half marathons, 9 10ks, 15 5ks....

sorry you can't use a blue badge if you are a carer, you can only use it if you are parking with the badge holder in the car and they are getting out,

Starbuck - I'll hazard a guess you're not a Londoner?

Esme - YANBU

I used to have this very problem with dd1's old school.

there was absolutely nowhere to park, at all, within walking distance (hinestly not an exaggeration. the nearestplace to park, was a mile away). everything was resident's parking.

imo, the council had no business putting a SN school on that site, with no parking/waiting/drop off zone.

every day parents would be there, parking, trying to drop off/pick up disabled children while running the gauntlet of getting a ticket.

and every couple of weeks, the ticket officer would come round, and hang around all day - rich pickings there, because we simply had no choice.

yes, i htink you should have been let off your fine on appeal. of course the ticket was issued - the officer had no choice. but you wrote in on appeal, clearly stating (with evidence of disability) why you were over time on your slot.

for that to be ignored is ridiculous.

have skimmed through this thread and have a few comments for the op.

the council have an element of discretion whether to cancel or uphold a pcn. from what you have said, im surprised that they have not cancelled the ticket. with that in mind, seems you need to strengthen the evidence and weight of your case.

was the letter on school-headed paper? i suggest you write to the council again and include the following:

1. letter from your doc confirming your child has autism, though your experience that morning was 'unpredictable and unforseeable'

2. letter from senco and or headteacher confirming that incident was recorded by the school and was'unforseen, beyond your control'.

re the issue of parking in a bay, drivers are entitled to park to allow passengers to board and alight. in the case of minors, they may be accompanied to / collected by adult as there are obvious issues of safety. the difficulty in your case is that having escorted your dc a problem occurred. you would theregore need to demonstrate as far as possible the points i made above.

re the amount now due for the pcn, many councils have an internal policy that accepts postal correspondence received within 17 or 19 days fron pcn issue. do ask them when they received yours and why discount not applied in your case.

if they do not accept your grounds of challenge, but give you chance to pay discount, will that be ok with you?

if not, id say you should appeal, with a view to appear in person if possible. adjudicators take a very dim view of upheld pcns where full evidence is provided and in circs beyond driver's control. adjs can and do make reccommendations for councils to withdraw from such appeals.

pls post if you have any specific questions.

in the meantime, a clue which coucil?