SIR – On a recent Friday morning at 11.30am I parked my car in the disabled car bay at the rear of the Arena Theatre. At that time a large coach-type vehicle was parked sideways across the other two disabled bays plus the adjacent hatched no parking area.

SIR - On a recent Friday morning at 11.30am I parked my car in the disabled car bay at the rear of the Arena Theatre. At that time a large coach-type vehicle was parked sideways across the other two disabled bays plus the adjacent hatched no parking area.

When I returned the coach was still there and as I got my wife into my car a traffic warden suddenly appeared, I assume to check whether I had a disabled badge.

I asked her why she had not given the coach a ticket, her answer was her superior had instructed her not to. I then asked her would she have given me a ticket if I had not displayed a disabled badge, her answer was yes.

Her actions pose a question which is how can St Albans Council employees give special treatment to their friends whilst not showing such largess to genuine disabled residents?

I also note the two bays beside the Mayor's parking bays have also been discontinued, these pompous council types know how to look after each other, I would have thought there was plenty of space in the ground floor car park for the Mayor's car.

Any disabled person using the Russell Avenue car park will no doubt soon realise what a bunch of luddites we have infesting the council offices. You cannot exit the building into Drovers Way from the ground floor, if you use one of the other levels you cannot enter or exit the building after about 6pm when the lifts are shut off.

To make a shopping trip to St Albans even more enjoyable, when you come back to the car park you have to go the office at the end of the building to get your ticket validated before returning to your car.

It is obvious that the councillors and their council employees could not care less about the disabled residents in this city, they are obviously too busy filling in their expense dockets. You would have thought that the Liberal Democrats would have learnt a lesson from the 1920s when they treated British women with contempt and virtually disappeared off the political scene.

DW CROSS

Address supplied