A DISABLED man who has enjoyed years of trouble-free parking near his home has been given a ticket by a new team of traffic wardens.

The ticket was issued after Hyndburn Council bosses admitted Stewart Smith needed his own disabled parking bay -- but said he could not have one.

Now council leader Coun Peter Britcliffe has conceded that parking enforcement should be carried out with more discretion.

Mr Smith, 52, has been a wheelchair user for more than 13 years after a motorcycling accident left him paralysed from the chest down.

But he has been told he cannot have a designated parking space outside his house in Burnley Road, Accrington, because it is too close to a set of traffic lights.

For years he has parked trouble-free in Alice Street, which is round the corner from his home.

Parking is restricted there by a single yellow line, but Mr Smith said if he displayed his disabled driver badge he didn't have a problem parking there.

But a week after Lancashire County Council, in partnership with Hyndburn Council, took control of parking enforcement he was booked for leaving his car there. He has since been told that his disabled parking badge allows him to park there for only three hours.

Mr Smith, who lives with his wife Elsie, said: "They took my rights to park outside my house away when they put the traffic lights in many years ago and now the new parking scheme means I can't park in Alice Street for more than three hours at a time either."

He contacted Hyndburn Council to ask if a parking bay could be put in Alice Street instead.

But despite admitting that Mr Smith needs a disabled parking space, a letter from officers said the rules stated it had to be outside his house - an option already dismissed.

Hyndburn Council leader, Coun Peter Britcliffe, said: "I would hope that the parking enforcement scheme would be administered with a little discretion where that is possible."