I APOLOGISE to Cassie Northam if my letter read like a slight to the disabled. My sarcasm was not directed to the disabled. It was directed at the gross waste of public time by the police and Crown Prosecution Service, who turned my parking in a disabled place - so as not to waste a doctor's time, into the fourth worst driving offence in the law, for which I could have served two years in prison.

After he had told the jury their time had been wasted, the judge addressed the prosecuting barrister with the words "What have the CPS been up to?". I fully accept that these disabled places should only be used by the disabled. In the same way, footways should be for people and not for cars - as parked in Regent Street, nor for goods for sale outside shops in the town centre. Both these are a greater nuisance to the blind and those with wheeled chairs, than to the able-footed who place these obstructions without consideration.

Why cannot traffic wardens have the authority to real with these obstructions? The footway is as much part of the highway as the carriageway. These law-breakers seem to have been told that there will be no prosecution for the offence, although it is quite clear in road traffic legislation. If someone placed an A-board in the carriageway, the police would be there in no time.

As to cycling on the footway, one gets the impression that Lancashire County Council and the police have re-written the law to encourage this.

I would be interested in Cassie's views on those who abuse their disabled parking permits. I refer not only to those who let a fit person use the permit when not conveying the disabled. I am also concerned by those who pay no attention to obvious danger spots when using their yellow-line concessions.

Michael Jackson

Peacock Lane

Hest Bank