Car clamped on hospital visits

A woman has condemned traffic wardens for clamping her car twice and giving her a parking ticket outside a hospital where she was tending to her seriously ill daughter.

On the first occasion, Angela de Caux Feather had parked her car in a bay near The London Clinic in Devonshire Place after a warden told her it was a legitimate space. After spending an hour with her daughter - who is being treated for cancer - Mrs Feather emerged from the hospital to find that her car had been clamped and was about to be towed away.

Three wardens refused to listen to her protestations that their colleague had previously indicated it to be a legitimate spot. However, the men removing the car were persuaded it was a mistake and took off the clamp.

The next day, she found that her car had been clamped again as she spent time at her daughter's bedside. The ticket she had bought allowing her to park had slipped off the windscreen. After long discussions with the parking authorities, the clamp was removed.

However, her final run in with wardens outside the hospital came this week. She was tending her daughter, who is in her thirties, which led to a five-minute delay returning and a parking ticket.

Mrs Feather, a nurse from Wandsworth in her sixties, said: "My daughter is again in the clinic having had a bowel obstruction and an operation to alleviate it. I was about move my car when my daughter started vomiting. I rushed for a bowl and to hold her. By the time I reached my car I was five minutes overdue and there were three traffic wardens round my car and a ticket on it. This is a disgrace.

"Outside a hospital they should give some leeway. The hospital will write a letter for me and I will appeal but I was so upset and already suffer from high blood pressure. I felt ill afterwards. Wardens should not exploit the vulnerable outside hospitals."

Mrs Feather, who launched a campaign with boy band Boyzone last year to raise money for cancer research, has complained to both Westminster's department of transportation, and to Mayor Ken Livingstone. The incident highlights the problems surrounding the socalled "zero discretion" policy implemented in London boroughs in the mid-Nineties.

However, Westminster said its wardens did not enforce a "zero discretion" policy and that each case was considered individually.

A spokeswoman said: "We fully sympathise with Mrs Feather's situation and understand the considerable stress she is under due to her daughter's illness. In Mrs Feather's case, we cannot comment on the allegations or particular parking tickets until the council carries out a full investigation. However, we do consider each case on its merits. Where it is considered appropriate, the parking fines will be cancelled."