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Imagine you're a busy mother-of-three with a daughter who has profound disabilities.

You have to visit Yeovil Hospital quite often on more than one occasion every week - you have a blue badge, your car registration is registered with the hospital.

And yet you keep getting issued with parking charges.

That's what's happened to Nicky Fordon from Ash six times in the last couple of months - the charges she has faced total more than 400.

On each occasion the ticket has been cancelled - but after she's had to make yet another journey there to deal with it in person.

"It's stressful, time-consuming and completely unnecessary," said Mrs Fordon, 52.

"When I had the first one I was really worried - I couldn't work out what I'd done."

The hospital has admitted there is a problem with the system and apologised, but Mrs Fordon says she's worried about vulnerable and elderly people who may be shelling out unnecessarily.

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She was shocked to get the first ticket and studying it closely she realised that somehow the camera monitoring the entrance to the hospital had registered her as parking there and not in a disabled parking bay.

"It showed my car and registration and it said I'd stopped there for an hour and a half - but it could only have been for a few seconds while I waited for a parking bay to be free or to let someone out.

"I mean I was in the car and the brake lights were on!"

Mrs Fordon has to regularly visit the hospital with her daughter Rebecca who has learning disablities and suffers from a rare condition called diabetes insipidus and hypopituitarism.

It means she has to have regular appointments at Yeovil hospital to make sure her sodium levels are sufficient because she can't retain liquids.

If they're too low this can be dangerous and mean a trip to the Bristol Royal Infirmary.

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"I feel like I spend my life at the hospital so it's a real pain to have to go back with the tickets - there's no number you can phone to talk to anyone, I've got to go in person.

"I think there must be loads of elderly people who just pay without questioning it.

"What's going to happen when they open the new car park? Is it going to get any better?"

A Yeovil Hospital spokeswoman said: "We would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused to this lady who has received these fines in error.

"The spaces out of the front of the hospital are controlled by ParkingEye who use number-plate recognition cameras. We have assisted with dealing with each ticket on an individual basis but this issue will now be escalated to ParkingEye for them to investigate.

"This is an unusual case and we would encourage this lady to get back into contact with us so we can address her concerns."

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Read this article:
Yeovil Hospital sorry for charges of over 400 wrongly sent to stressed mum of disabled girl - Somerset Live

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