OUTRAGED disabled motorists claim to have been hit hardest by Wirral's new ticket regime.

A charity set up for disabled motorists has slammed the council's new parking policy for unduly targeting the peninsula's most vulnerable people.

Karen Jones, manager of the Wirral Disabled Motorists Club, said: "Disabled people are an easy target for traffic wardens and we have received a lot of letters and phone calls of complaint from members about this issue. Lots of our members feel these new parking wardens are unfairly clobbering them.

"For a start there are not enough disabled spaces and secondly, the attendants do not give leniency or credence to the age of the people they are dealing with."

The Globe and Karen have both received complaints from disabled people who have received fines even though they have 'blue badges' that allow them to park in certain restricted areas.

In the last six months more than 1,600 parking fines have been rescinded because the drivers have had blue badges.

However, Karen believes that many disabled drivers may be simply paying fines to avoid the hassle of complaining.

Monty Hughes, 85, from Higher Bebington told the Globe he was one such motorist.

He said: "I went to the barbers a couple of weeks ago and I parked outside the shops and put up my disabled badge and the disc.

"When I got outside I had a ticket even though my badges were up. I was going to refuse to pay it but because I am disabled I didn't want to go down to Birkenhead and fill in the forms, so I've paid it now. I will refuse to next time."

Karen added: "With age some of our members find it more difficult to follow instructions such as how to display their blue badges. I have even heard of cases where people have got tickets for having the badge in the centre of the dashboard rather than at the side closest to the kerb. If a disabled motorist has to get out of their car into the street sometimes they can't lean over far enough to get the badge onto the other side of the car."

Karen also believes that time limitations should also be more lenient for disabled motorists.

She said: "We lose track of the time the same as everybody else but disabilities do cause specific problems.

"For example, I have Crohn's disease, which means I need to go to the toilet all the time. So sometimes if I'm in the town centre and I have to go searching all over the place in my wheelchair for a toilet, unlike able-bodied people I can't run back to the car park to make sure I don't get a ticket and it doesn't help when wardens are standing over your car watching their wristwatches."