A parking sign concreted in place to face the wrong direction on Southwood Lane, N6, has led to a local disabled resident being fined £600.Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone has taken up the case with the Transport for London commissioner, Peter Hendy, asking for the fine to be reviewed and the signage urgently to be made clearer.

The penalty was incurred after Mrs Elizabeth Bennett, a Highgate Resident, parked at 08:10am on the 18th May 2007 with a disabled badge, not realising restrictions only allow parking from 10:00 to 16:00.However, the sign indicating this, points down the hill, making it invisible from the space where Mrs. Bennett was actually parked.

Lynne Featherstone commented:

“Parking restrictions are a necessity in a busy city, but when they are heartlessly applied without a jot of compassion there is something seriously wrong.

“Having seen the site myself, I can quite understand how Mrs. Bennett believed that she was parking legally. To add insult to injury, £600 is way off the scale of what is fair.TfL must act to right this wrong.”

Councillor Rachel Allison, Highgate councillor, added:

“I have previously spoken with officers from Transport for London who agreed with me that the sign was unclear and that the bay should actually have been white and not red, which would have meant that Mrs Bennett would have been allowed to park there anyway!”