A DISABLED pensioner’s trip to buy buttons for a cardigan left her counting the cost after she was hit with a £35 parking fine.

Cath Dinsdale and her 87-year-old friend popped into Bishop Auckland on Wednesday so she could chose buttons for the cardigan she had just made for her.

Mrs Dinsdale, of Shildon, County Durham, parked her Hyundai Getz in a disabled bay outside Boyes, in Newgate Street, at 3.55pm.

The 77-year-old displayed her friend’s disabled badge and got her walker out of the boot before entering the store.

When the pair emerged from the shop six minutes later, Mrs Dinsdale said she was asked by a female parking attendant if it was her car and said she “had a problem” as she had just been given a ticket for not displaying the clock part of the disabled badge.

Mrs Dinsdale said she did not think she needed to display the clock as she was entitled to park for two hours and claimed that two parking attendants had watched her leaving the car.

However Durham County Council said bodycam footage showed they were not in the street at the time.

Mrs Dinsdale, a former sales assistant, said she will pay the fine - which was issued within just one minute of parking - but has criticised the attendant for the way she spoke to her and has now written a letter of complaint to the council.

“It’s just crazy and it made my friend feel worse because she had asked to me to take her – she was in an awful state when we got home,” Mrs Dinsdale said.

“Bishop Auckland needs people to go into it, not put off and elderly people need to be closer to shops.”

She added: “I really just want to make the point of it being so trivial.”

Dave Wafer, strategic traffic manager, said: “All of our parking officers wear bodycams, and having viewed the footage from the incident in question I’m confident that our officers were in another part of the town when the car was parked.

“Our footage shows that the officers who issued the ticket only came across the vehicle once, and it was in that instance that a penalty notice was issued as the vehicle was not displaying a disc clock alongside the blue badge.”