A DISABLED woman who parked in a visitors' bay when all her street's permit parking spaces were full has hit out at officials for giving her a ticket.

Today disability rights campaigners accused parking attendants of sticking too rigidly to their rules after Linda Blackburn, of Longshaw Street, Blackburn, was issued with a £60 ticket.

But despite calls to show some common sense Blackburn with Darwen Council bosses said that "the rules are the same for everybody" and refused to quash the fine.

Mrs Blackburn, 45, works at Jubilee House answering 999 calls and operator calls for BT, and her shifts run from 4pm to 12.30am.

Her car was ticketed when she left her car in the visitors' bay as there were no residents' parking spaces left on her street as she returned home in the early hours.

The visitors' bay has a one-hour waiting restriction between 8am and 6pm.

And the mother-of-two said when she complained to the council that she felt she was ticketed unfairly she was told that in future she would either have to get up before 9am to move her car or find a space in another street without parking restrictions and walk home in the dark.

She said: "I get home in the early hours of the morning, and some times I can't park in the residents' spaces because they are full so I park there (visitors' bay)."

"So when I come home I want to park my car outside my own house.

"I am certainly not paying the fine even if they take me to court, I have never heard anything so ridiculous.

"I have parked in that bay loads of times before because there was nowhere else.

"If they can see that a residents' only sticker in my car why have they given me a ticket?"

Mrs Blackburn has lived in the street, near Blackburn Rovers' Ewood Park ground, for 21 years.

She said the residents' only parking was introduced about three to four years ago to stop Rovers supporters parking there for matches.

In March 2005 she had an operation on her spine to deal with her osteoporosis, and she is registered disabled.

She has a disabled parking disc but did not display it because she was parking near her home.

A spokesperson for the Disability Rights Commission, accused the council of showing a lack of discretion and said they were sticking too rigidly to their own rules.

She said: "The council should be more flexible when dealing with people with disabilities or mobility problems. Surely when they saw this driver's permit they could have exercised some discretion.

"Being told that you should park in another street when there are empty visitors' bays outside your house is just not acceptable."

Graham Burgess, director of regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "The ticket was issued because the driver had left her car in a short stay bay for longer than the amount of time allowed The rules are the same for everybody."