A woman from Woodbridge who was fined for failing to present her blue badge whilst taking her elderly mother to an emergency appointment will now be refunded.

Ms Walker said that in her urgency to get her mother to the appointment she forgot to place her blue badge on show in her car window, though it remained in the car.

On returning to the car park Ms Walker says she realised her mistake and got in touch with Suffolk Coastal Norse, who run the car park to apologise for her mistake and to present her blue badge.

Her initial appeal was rejected by the council on the grounds that they were unable to accept a copy of the badge after the event.

Ms Walker decided to pay the fine but was angry with the way the case had been dealt with.

After speaking to her local councillor Ms Walker got in touch with the EADT to see if more could be done with her case.

After further contact with the council it was established that a supporting letter from the optician could help Ms Walker’s case.

She submitted the letter and has now been told that the council will be refunding her payment “based on the circumstances described in your appeal”.

However, they also reiterated the importance of placing blue badges on display: “I would like to remind you that I do consider the onus is on the driver to ensure that they comply with the conditions of use of the car park.”

Ms Walker said she was pleased with the good result that had been agreed with the council.

A Suffolk Coastal spokesman said: “We cannot comment on individual cases.

“However, we are committed to getting things right for our customers and try to be responsive to the circumstances people find themselves in, so we would always try to support anyone who has unfortunately received a parking ticket when they are dealing with a genuine emergency situation.

“Anyone who feels they have been wrongly given a ticket, for whatever reason, should use our appeal procedure on the car parking and appeals area of the East Suffolk district council website.”