I AM a cancer patient. On May 13 I attended the oncology clinic at Warrington Hospital.

Over recent months the hospital has outsourced the management of its car parks and as a result patients with a blue badge have to pay the same charges as everyone else.

I was aware of this, so I bought a ticket for £3 — the lowest charge available despite the fact that I knew I would be on site for less than an hour.

I noticed at the time that although the machine allowed me to type in my full registration number only six of the seven characters were printed on my ticket.

On May 26 I received a charge notice from Highview Parking which stated “We do not have evidence that a sufficient parking payment was made for this vehicle to cover the full duration of this visit”. As a result I have been charged £75 with an option to have this reduced to £40 if I pay within 14 days.

I have called the phone number given on the charge notice but this does not give the opportunity to talk to anyone. It states that should you wish to make an appeal you should do this in writing either by email or post. I have emailed the company and pointed out their mistake and asked them to waive the £75 penalty charge. If they refuse to waive the charge, I will refuse to pay the charge and let them take me to court as a matter of principle.

It is bad enough that disabled badge holders are being charged by the NHS via Highview Parking to park at Warrington General Hospital, but being chased for a £75 'fine' for non-payment because their machines print out incomplete registration numbers is taking a liberty.

I have enough on my plate dealing with the impact of having stage four cancer, without having to waste time and energy appealing a charge for non-payment of a 'fine' when I had actually paid for a parking ticket. Luckily I had not tidied my car since my hospital visit, or I would not have had evidence that I had paid. I advise anyone using the hospital car park to do the same.

I wonder how many people have received similar charge notices and paid them?

DAVE KELSALL

Culcheth