ON December 10, my husband and I took my 86 year old father-in-law to a Bolton Hospice Memorial Service at the Parish Church to remember his daughter and wife who had spent the last weeks of their lives at the Hospice.

The weather was icy cold, windy and driving rain and not really fit for him to go but he wanted to make the effort. When we looked for a parking place we could see no restrictions just at the side of the gate of the Parish Church and as my father-in-law needed two of us to walk him up the path as he is unsteady on his feet we parked the car.

He told us that as long as there were not two lines on the pavement we could park there and it was just next to the disabled parking bay that was full as the service was extremely busy.

The spot we picked was tucked away and we were not blocking any access.

We were amazed when we came out of the service at 8pm to see a parking ticket on the windscreen and this caused my father in law some distress.

I have appealed to Bolton Council and explained the circumstances however they decided to uphold the charge as there was a loading bay sign there even though we could not see it due to the driving rain and nobody was going to unload anything at that time.

Merry Christmas Bolton Council

Gail Hounslea C Dir MI0D

Managing Director