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Mr Simmonds appeared before me today for the personal hearing of his appeal, accompanied by his daughter. He gave evidence in the same terms as his earlier representations to the Enforcement Authority and his Notice of Appeal.
This Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) was issued because Mr Simmonds’s car was seen parked on a single yellow line in Totterdown Street at a time when waiting was restricted. Although a Blue Badge was displayed, no disc or clock showing the time at which the parking had started was displayed. Mr Simmonds’ case was that he had in fact only parked for a few minutes to pick up his dry cleaning, which was supported by an email from the dry cleaning shop. That would not have given him a ground of appeal.
However, I noted that the waiting restrictions that applied to this particular stretch of the street, according to the Notice of Rejection and the photographs taken by the Civil Enforcement Officer (CEO), were from 7am to 10 am and from 4 pm to 7 pm. This PCN was issued at 6.41 pm, i.e. during the second of those two periods. (Because the CEOs’ photographs were not very clear, I looked on Google Street View, and their images are consistent with those of the CEO, save that the shop outside which Mr Simmonds’ car was parked has changed from a beauty salon to a mini cab service.)
The entitlement of disabled badge holders to park on yellow lines derives from the requirements imposed on Enforcement Authorities when drafting their Traffic Management Orders (TMOs) by the Local Authorities' Traffic Orders (Exemptions for Disabled Persons) (England and Wales) Regulations 1986 (as amended by the Local Authorities' Traffic Orders (Exemptions for Disabled Persons) (England) Regulations 2000). The relevant parts of Regulation 8 read:
(2) An order to which this regulation applies shall include an exemption from the prohibition in accordance with whichever of paragraphs (3) and (4) is appropriate in favour of any vehicle displaying a disabled person's badge in the relevant position.

(3) Where the period of the prohibition does not exceed 3 hours the exemption shall be for the whole of that period.

(4) Where the period of the prohibition exceeds 3 hours the exemption shall be for a period of 3 hours subject to the conditions that-
(a) the period of exempted waiting does not begin less than one hour after a previous period of exempted waiting by the same vehicle in the same road on the same day;

(b) a parking disc is displayed in the relevant position on the vehicle marked to show the quarter hour period during which the period of exempted waiting began.
In simple terms, this means that where the period of the waiting restriction does not exceed 3 hours, only the Blue Badge is required to be displayed; the additional display of the disc or clock is only required when the period of restriction exceeds 3 hours.
There is an inconsistency in the Enforcement Authority’s evidence, in that the CEO’s notes (but not the photographs), the Case Summary and the extract from the TMO produced by the Authority refer to the waiting restrictions being from 7 am to 7 pm. It may be that there is a different TMO that provides for this parking place, with peak hour only restrictions, but in any event a motorist is entitled to rely on the signs adjacent to where he parks, and so I decide this case on the basis that the restriction that applied at this location at the time that Mr Simmonds parked there did not exceed 3 hours. It follows that the display of the Blue Badge alone, without the disc, entitled him to park there.
The appeal is therefore allowed.
[I would nevertheless recommend to Mr Simmonds that out of abundant caution he should always set and display his clock when relying on the Blue Badge.]

I made a representation and it got rejected.