FURTHER to the comments made by Disgusted of Morecambe, I will never as long as I live forget the day when a Lancaster traffic warden approached my car whilst parked outside a Lancaster funeral home.

I had cause to visit the funeral home in order to identify the body of my husband who had been killed in Germany days earlier in a road traffic accident.

Aware that I had an eight-month-old baby, the director of the funeral home suggested I parked across the garage doors of the funeral home so that I would not have far to walk with my baby - he assured me this was fine as the funeral cars would not be leaving the garage that afternoon.

An hour later, as I sat in my car in floods of tears, preparing to start the engine and return home, the traffic warden tapped on my window and signalled that I should wind it down.

The warden proceeded to warn me that I had parked illegally and that I must move on immediately else receive a ticket. Still crying I explained the circumstances and that the funeral director had given me permission to park there.

Without even a flicker of emotion the warden continued to look me in the eye and told me that they did not care for my circumstances and that they would issue a ticket immediately if I did not move on.

I asked the warden to go into the funeral parlour to verify my story with the director but the warden simply took a pad from out of a pocket and so I wound up my window and drove away feeling physically sick that any human being could be so heartless.

I still see the same traffic warden walking the streets of Lancaster and every time I do I get the same sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Lyndsay Pickerill

Abraham Heights Lancaster