Yet another case has come to light of the tyranny of the parking bureaucrats.

A 79-year old Maidstone woman has been fined £35 after she inadvertently displayed her 83-year-old sister’s disabled parking badge the wrong way round, with the photo side to the front.

Never mind the fact that the permit was in all ways totally valid. Never mind that she was caring for her elderly sister, who is both physically disabled with arthritis and suffers from vascula dementia, a condition that has destroyed her short-term memory. Never mind that the pair had parked in All Saints’ Church car park so that they could attend the festival of nine lessons and carols during what used to be called the season of goodwill.

No, she put the permit round the wrong way, so she must be made to pay.

The details of this case are particularly distressing. Because of her health problems, the sister is totally dependent on her relative. She cannot cook, cannot clean her house, cannot control her financial affairs, cannot organise cleaners or carers, cannot even remember what day it is.

Caring for her is a burden lovingly accepted by Mrs P, but a huge burden nevertheless. The council should be praising her efforts and trying to help her, not lying in wait around street corners hoping that she will slip up so they can slap a penalty notice on her car.

Sadly, at almost every level of society, our officialdom is so motivated by the desire to generate income that they have completely lost all idea of “service”.

The concept that our public officials are actually there to help us - the public - not to criminalise us, is alien to them. They are more concerned with the details of the process of regulation than its purpose.

At the very least, in cases like these sisters’, the alleged “offender” should be given a grace period of seven days whereby if they can show that they had a valid permit at the time, any penalty is automatically cancelled.