A couple have been left outraged after they claim they were unfairly fined for parking using their blue badge.

Gordon and Jean Harris visited Swindon town centre on November 22 and parked on the double yellow lines on Edgeware Road. Their blue badge allows them to park on double yellow lines for up to three hours.

But they were fined for having their car parked there for longer than the permitted time after Mrs Harris' wheelchair broke down, which they say is unfair.

Swindon Borough Council disputed the accusation, claiming that the badge parking time had run out and the warden had penalised them correctly.

The couple say they parked their car at 11.30am and set the blue badge's adjustable clock to that time. The council provided a photograph to the Adver showing it was actually set 15 minutes earlier, at 11.15am.Swindon Advertiser:

But whilst they were out shopping in town, Mrs Harris' motorised wheelchair broke down, causing them to return later than expected.

As they arrived back at the car at what they say was exactly 2.30pm, they saw a parking warden walking away from the vehicle having left a ticket on their car.

Along with the three-hour parking time, blue badge holders are permitted a 10-minute grace period on top of the time displayed on the badge's clock before they are then liable to receive a ticket.

Mr Harris was left distressed as he believed that he and his wife had been ticketed unfairly as they were permitted to have 10 minutes to exit without being ticketed according to when he claimed the time was set.

But the council says the 10-minute grace period would have expired at 2.25pm.

Mr Harris said: “I didn’t sleep all night thinking about where we were going to find the money to pay it and it’s not the kind of thing I expected.

“I have just been so depressed over it when it should have never really happened.

“I think it is appalling.

“I am off work with stress and anxiety and that made it extremely worse.”

After immediately appealing the decision, the fine was removed.

A spokesperson for the council said: “We take all complaints really seriously and will liaise directly with Mr Harris on the issues he has raised, rather than respond through the newspaper.”