"Disabled Parking"

Took my housebound father ( who is in his 90s and for whom I'm a full time live-in carer) to RD&E for an eye appointment. Disabled parking was, as usual, full, chaotic and queued up and there is no drop-off for vulnerable disabled patients. We had to park at the far end of the visitor carpark which involves obstructing the way for other users with my car as the spaces are too narrow to be able to transfer him into his wheelchair while parked in a space. I don't mind parking in that carpark as I am able to push him in a wheelchair (unlike lone disabled drivers, who ought to have priority)  but it is physically challenging for me and makes getting him to the appointment so much more stressful. It also means I have to leave him unattended in a carpark while I move the car, which feels dangerous.

Once in the department I had to leave him to go to reception, show his disabled parking badge and appointment letter and give my car registration, which is the process if you cannot park in the disabled bays. I saw this being written down on a list with paper and pen by 2 volunteers manning the reception desk and was told it would be entered on the system so that I would not be charged for parking. There is no way I could have verified that they had done this.

However, about 10 days later I received a penalty notice from ACPOA by post at my home address. I appealed online, as required, explaining that the hospital parking process was in error and that I had exactly complied with the requirements. I received an email (which stayed in my spam folder for a week) requesting that I send, by post, a copy of my father's badge within a deadline of 14 days with no opportunity to contact by email or online. For data protection reasons I'm not happy to supply medical or disabled parking personal data to a carparking company, but in any case I have no means of photocopying the documents I had already presented at the hospital. Neither can I easily get to a post office to post a reply, especially as it's a bank holiday. I believe ACPOA has deliberately made it difficult to respond to their request. 

It's hard enough being a full time carer without the hospital and ACPOA putting further hurdles in the way and causing extra distress, expense, and inconvenience when their process is at fault and I have done nothing wrong.