Disabled Honley man vows not to pay parking ticket

Feb 13 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Disabled Honley man vows not to pay parking ticket

A DISABLED driver has demanded his day in court after getting a parking ticket.

Honley man Thomas Swift, who walks with a stick, has refused to pay the fine for parking in a residents permit spot on Prospect Street in Springwood.

The 63-year-old, who has heart problems, had driven over to see his friend Nora Joyce.

Mr Swift said: “The road was busy because there was a wedding on at the Sikh Temple. There’s only one disabled space on Prospect Street and it was taken.

“I would have had to park in The Grove car park but I wouldn’t have been able to walk from there so I parked in a permit spot on Prospect Street instead.”

When Mr Swift returned an hour later he found a Kirklees Council parking warden writing him a ticket.

He said: “I explained to him that the road was jam-packed and I wasn’t able to walk from The Grove but he wrote me a ticket anyway. I noticed that he had parked in the permit area as well and didn’t have anything on his windscreen.”