Parking ticket U-turn relief

Jacqueline Knapper and the ticket notice

Chronicle to rescue of driver in distress
A DISABLED woman slapped with a parking ticket despite having a suspected heart attack has had the fine revoked — thanks to the Chronicle.

Jacqueline Knapper (49) pulled into the car park at Tommyfield Market when she felt severe chest pains.

Asking a passing couple to call an ambulance, when it arrived, Miss Knapper, of Cooper Street, Springhead, was worried about her car.However, ambulance staff wrote a note to the parking wardens explaining what had happened and left it on her dashboard. Two hours later when she was released from the Royal Oldham Hospital, she was shocked to find a yellow ticket on her windscreen.

Miss Knapper has one kidney, a damaged lung and has previously suffered with cancer, three heart attacks and three strokes. She says she is disgusted with how she has been treated. And it looked like Oldham Council would have a legal battle on their hands after Miss Knapper threatened she would rather go to court than pay the £50 fine.

But thanks to intervention from the Chronicle, parking chiefs have apologised and decided to rescind the penalty.

Miss Knapper said: “I called to say I wasn’t going to pay the ticket but they told me I had to get a letter from the ambulance staff to prove that they wrote the letter left in my car and then go to the hospital and get a letter from them to say I was admitted.

“They’ve even accused me of writing the note myself. It’s a disgrace, I’m too ill to go chasing everyone around. I told them I would rather go to court than pay a fine.”

She later found out that she had not had a heart attack on that occasion but had contracted pneumonia.

Even if Miss Knapper had intended to pay the fine, she says it is unlikely she would have got the letters back from the relevant parties within the time allowed to pay.

Councillor Jean Stretton said: “We have looked into this case and I’m pleased to say that the parking ticket issued to Miss Knapper has now been rescinded.

“We had received a letter from her, but it contained no contact address.

“A staff member also had one phone conversation with her but at no stage were we aware of the full facts relating to this unfortunate situation.

“If we had known that detail it would, of course, have immediately shed a very different light on the situation.

“I can only apologise for any distress this may have caused Miss Knapper.”