Parking warden tickets Dunkirk veteran with disabled badge

AN 85-year-old disabled Dunkirk war veteran who is almost blind has been given a parking ticket - despite clearly displaying a disabled badge on his wife's car.

East Sussex County Council said the badge was facing the wrong way and fined him 60.

Don Short, a born and bred Lewesian and Commercial Square Bonfire boy for more than 70-years, has refused to pay up and said the fine was an 'insult'.

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He lives in Seaford but visits Lewes every week, despite having difficulty walking after a quadruple by-pass operation and suffering from acute angina.

He told the Express: 'My wife parked up in the car parked at the Phoenix causeway.

'I have to rely on her to drive because I've had two corneal grafts and I'm nearly blind.

'I stuck the badge on the windscreen and when we came back we were shocked to see we had a parking ticket.

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'I called the Parking Shop on School Hill and they said it was because I put the badge the wrong way round.

'My eyesight isn't good and I obviously boobed by putting it the wrong way, but it was still a legitimate badge and they could have easily looked through the window of the car to see the other side.

'I'm not going to pay it, I think it's an insult and being an old Lewesian I find it very upsetting.

'I thnk people need to make a fuss about things like this we can stop all these petty little Hitlers who are full of their own self-importance.'

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Mr Short, who served with the Royal Engineers, raised the issue with MP Norman Baker who wrote to Rupert Clubb, the director of transport and environment for the county council, which runs the unpopular parking scheme in Lewes.

Mr Clubb refused to cancel the badge, saying there was a 'high level of abuse' of disabled badges.

He told Mr Baker: 'You will appreciate that, even though Mr Short may not have intended to display his blue badge incorrectly, the fine has been correctly applied.'

MP Baker said: 'It may have been right to issue the ticket at the time but if the person can demonstrate they have a valid ticket it should be cancelled.

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'This is the sort of inflexible practice which brings the parking scheme into disrepute.

'Mr Short has a valid badge and the ticket should be cancelled, it's as simple as that.'

Last month the county council was forced into an embarrassing climbdown after the Sussex Express reported it had dished out a parking ticket in similar circumstances.

Ann Teare, 84, from Newick Green, was given a ticket even though her disabled badge was clearly visible.

The council refused an appeal from Mrs Teare but cancelled the fine a week after her story was featured in the Express.