My wife and I, both Disabled Badge holders, recently visited the Depdale Shopping centre in Preston. The Centre has a huge car park, which is free and has no time restrictions. There were plenty of free spaces and we found a disabled bay adjacent to the particular store that we wished to visit. My wife has some difficulty in exiting the car and in the process of helping her I overlooked the need to place our badge on the dashboard. Within five minutes of entering the store I realised my error and hurried back to the car, only to find a Parking Charge Notice already on my windscreen demanding payment of £100 reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days.

One appeal to UKCPS of Leeds has already been rejected. I learned from the Centre management that in the circumstances described, an approach to the warden, showing our badges, would have resulted in the charges being quashed. I was not aware of this, but in any case there was no warden in sight. I await the results of a second appeal (accompanied by copies of our badges) and am told a further appeal is allowed to an independent appeals service (POPLA). The basis of my complaint is that no distinction is made between the blatant disregard for disabled parking bay requirements by ruthless drivers and a momentary lapse of memory (increasingly frequent with advancing years), and secondly the hugely disproportionate sum demanded. I would be grateful for your observations