I am not surprised by the number of parking fines cancelled by West Oxfordshire District Council (Wednesday’s Oxford Mail), in view of councillor David Harvey’s comments defending the civil enforcement officers, in that they have had strict training and passed exams.

It is a pity they are not assessed on common sense abilities as, from my own experience, the officers act over-zealously. Perhaps they need to issue a certain number of tickets to justify their job.

Being disabled I used my blue badge to park on double yellow lines (as permitted by the scheme) in Witney. While in the process of parking, someone in a small red car nosed their way in front of my vehicle (no blue badge displayed) and went off to do their business.

I opened my boot and took out my wheelchair which I used to go on to the footpath via the dropped kerb.

On my return 15 minutes later I had been issued with a ticket for obstructing the same dropped kerb I had used to get to and from the bank to my vehicle, so there was no obstruction.

I have appealed and heard nothing.

Meanwhile, the offending vehicle had no ticket served on it and the driver returned with bags of shopping and certainly was not disabled.

The councillor who said the quashing of so many fines was due to leniency was trying to look charitable to score points.

Do councillors honestly think they have all the answers when they also lack common sense, something that cannot be trained into employees?

More often district councils should be assessed on common sense, not how much money they can save.

Adrian Taylor, Thames Court, Eynsham