A SUPPORT worker has called on Cherwell District Council to reverse its controversial decision to charge disabled blue badge holders to park.

Stephen Whiting, 42, was fined £80 for failing to buy a ticket just weeks after new parking fees were introduced.

Mr Whiting, who lives in Witney, is a care worker for Homeinstead, which has clients across Oxfordshire, including Banbury.

Last Tuesday, he took a disabled man to a class at the Mill Arts Centre, Banbury, and displayed the blue badge and timer at the centre’s car park.

But when he returned two hours later, he had been given a ticket.

Mr Whiting said: “How do they expect someone like myself, who lives in West Oxfordshire, to know about charges in Cherwell? There were no signs in the car park and nothing to say blue badge holders now had to pay.”

Chris Rothwell, Tory-run Cherwell’s head of safer communities, urban and rural services, said: “We would encourage all car park users to check the information boards before parking. Appeals on the basis that a person was not aware or didn’t realise there were new charges will not be granted.”

Lib Dem Nick Cotter said: “It is wholly unsatisfactory that proper large warning signs were not placed at these various car parks informing people about to park there.”