I received a parking ticket on Saturday 02.06.07 in Totnes. I had parked the car in one of the disabled parking bays at the top of the town - a bank of three outside RoyBern newsagent where I usual buy the daily paper, tobacco etc. before stopping off at the Red Wizard for breakfast. There I was, reading the paper, supping tea, hacking on a fag when told I had a parking ticket. Well, the look on my face must have been a sight.

The car I am the keeper of is a Motability car and is registered as such with the DVLA. I have mobility problems due to multiple sclerosis. The car was legally parked and displaying the required information - a blue card and 'clock' which were attached to the drop down passenger sun-shade and fully visible in the windscreen a foot above the special Motability tax disc. The people who accompanied me to the car noticed them immediately. Perhaps the Police Constable missed them. The offence thought committed? PK59; 'parking in a disabled bay without lawful authority'.

Anyway the displayed blue card and penalty notice stuck to the window were photographed  and of course the ticket will be challenged.

There were a few incidents prior to receiving the parking ticket which might be of interest.

 

 

Ten days earlier I was in the cafe which had three other people there. I asked two if they new a mechanic so I could get under the car to try and find the tracker on it and remove it. (Yes, there is a tracker on the car and it would take to long to explain how I found out.) As soon as I mentioned it the person I was not speaking to run out of the cafe. I visited the garage about an hour later and made an appointment for two days in the future. Unfortunately I didn't get under the car myself and when the mechanic had finished he tried to feed me a 'cock and bull' story about his uncle being an assassin working  for the government. Serious. He even had the termerity to mention the word "Bond". He then went on to mention a couple of things that he could have only got from my writing but he has never visited the site. Do you think the person who ran out of the cafe went and reported to someone? I do and I think he is a coppers nark.

 

Another thing that I think may have influenced getting a ticket was that on the 21st May I published a piece here titled, The Anglo/American Alliance and Alternatives Part 2 , which, towards the end, described how the City of London and the West End could be shut down without using bombs. The strategic one-way systems and roundabouts in the inner-city boroughs can be quite easily choked with traffic during the rush-hour. I gave an example of an industrial action I was involved in the early 1980s which did just that at the Shoreditch one-way system.

 

The day previous to my parking traumas, the Totnes Tory MP, Anthony Steen was served 2 parking tickets when he left his car in a disabled bay at Newton Abbot train station for a couple of days while in London. His response was odd for an MP (from the BBC news web site) ;

"...absurd number of handicapped spaces.............It's not a requirement that you provide so much for the handicapped and comparatively insufficient for the un-handicapped. Of course we want to help the handicapped, and of course they've got to be given provisions, but not against the interests of the majority"

Its not so much the oddness of the archaic language that Anthony Steen employs, after all he is a Tory and the use of 'handicapped' is merely representative of the dimmer personalities, like that other Andy Capp which inhabit the Conservative Party. No, what was really odd was listening to him on Radio 4 ranting as he tried to justify his selfish actions with such tripe. Attempting to place the blame for his illegal parking onto the number of spaces for the disabled is contemptible, and to whip up hostility for a minority out of a "rushed" anger at being inconvenienced by some compassionate rules for car parking, has exposed an intolerant and dangerous temperament.

To repeat urban myths expounded by the more ignorant elements of society is not the standard of propriety expected from an MP who should, at the very least have some understanding of the facts. An example from his constituency.

The total car parking spaces at the top of Totnes town, along the High Street above St Marys church to Castle Street and the two nearest car parks - Civic Centre and North Street - is 102 of which 8 are designated disabled. 2 outside (card shop), 3 outside RoyBern Newsagent, 2 in the Civic Centre car park and 1 in North Street car park. A ratio of 1:12, or 8%!   

I have used them all and many times found them all occupied, occassionally by delivery trucks or non-disabled drivers but mostly by cars displaying the blue card. Most able-bodied drivers understand and respect the need for disabled parking spaces, but Anthony Steen still can't shed this antediluvian thinking that 8% is to much for the disabled.

Two incidents that may or may not have relevence to my parking ticket.