Nasty Islington Council

Donna

This is so nasty of Islington Council (copied and pasted from the Gazette)<div><br></div><div><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 5px 0px 15px; font-size: 30px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.1; color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Signika, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/campaign_to_raise_cash_for_disabled_pensioner_given_ticket_for_parking_in_a_disabled_bay_outside_whittington_1_3958509http://">Campaign to raise cash for disabled pensioner given ticket for parking in a disabled bay outside Whittington</a></h1></div><div><br></div><div><img src="http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/polopoly_fs/1.3958507.1424108019!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_630/image.jpg" alt="David Eton is upset after getting a parking ticket in a disabled spot"><br></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A cash-raising campaign has been launched to help a disabled pensioner on benefits pay for a ticket he was given for parking in a marked disabled space on a hospital visit.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">David Eton, 70, “couldn’t believe it” after being slapped with a £135 fine for stopping in the bay outside the Whittington Hospital, in Magdala Avenue, Archway - signs outside indicating it was for people with disabilities, but it’s actually only for disabled drivers who live in that road.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Islington Council refused to cancel the ticket and as Mr Eton has to get by on just £140 a week, one of his neighbours has set up a <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://gogetfunding.com/project/the-david-eton-fund-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 154, 215); text-decoration: none;">fundraising page</a> to help him pay the fine.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He said: “I’m really grateful to everyone.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I’m a pensioner and I only get £140 to live on, so after I pay this what’s left?</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I can’t understand why I got the ticket in the first place.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Other people will be getting caught out too - there not going to hospital for the fun of it.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I’ve just been in hospital for the past week, and this stress isn’t helping.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A few days after finding out the decision by the Council to turn down his parking appeal, Mr Eton was taken by ambulance to hospital suffering from chest pains.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">His Good Samaritan neighbour, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “I am setting up this fundraising page with the permission of his wife to try to help him out and to show him that not everyone believes people should be treated in this way.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Please show your support with a donation, however small.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the past few years hundreds of disabled people could have been caught out, with Islington Council raking in up to £50,000 a year in the process.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Plucky blind pensioner Elizabeth Jones, 86, took the town hall to task when she was caught in the same spot in 2013.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A Freedom of Information (FOI) request she submitted revealed the council dished out a whopping 414 tickets at the bays in 2012.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A council spokesman said he was unable to obtain figures for the bays for 2014.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He added: “This parking space is one of three bays allocated to specific individual residents.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The residents who have permission to park there have been medically assessed and need a dedicated parking space in this location.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 20px; color: rgb(126, 126, 126); font-family: 'Open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.1818180084229px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“We need to make sure these bays are always available for the authorised residents, and whilst we are sorry a ticket was issued in this case, we believe the signs and road markings are clear.”</p></div><div><br></div>

Papa

Disgraceful behaviour from Islington - but only to be expected from their lunatic roads and parking division.<div><br></div><div>That really helps with that cost of living crisis doesn't it? </div><div><br><div>The council often refuses to refund fines dished out when things are clearly unclear - as evidenced by the huge 414 tickets dished out here in 2012. That says it is too easy to mistake, so why not make it obvious it is for residents only.</div><div><br></div><div>Remember <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/council-pays-back-11000-fines-after-traffic-blunder-at-a-cost-of-1million-8594430.htmlhttp://">this where people complained it was obviously not clear</a> if so many people were making the mistake and it refused to back down before being forced to refund fines.</div></div>