THE ill feeling over parking at Hereford County Hospital has been highlighted by a rude note placed on the windscreen of a car parked in a disabled bay.

The anonymous writer said the driver had no right to a blue disabled badge, had deprived a needy person of a space and hoped they were unable to sleep at night.

The message, written on a scrap of paper, has caused considerable distress to a disabled patient, 54-year-old Sandra Wheeler a former Herefordian now living in Machynlleth in mid Wales.

She was the owner of the badge and at the time she was in the day hospital at the County having treatment to her knee under a general anaesthetic.

Mrs Wheeler, who has previously undergone major back surgery and is facing a knee replacement operation, was unable to drive last week and her husband John took the wheel.

"Because we were early we were able, for the first time, to find a disabled space. In the previous five or six visits we failed and each time parked in, and paid for a normal bay,'' she said.

After settling his wife in the hospital Mr Wheeler returned to the car for his rucksack and decided to walk in to town.

He returned to find the note saying 'I have been watching you striding up town with your ruck sack and you do not seem disabled to me. How can you have a blue badge and feel you have the right to take up a space for a disabled person. I hope you cannot sleep at night. I have taken your reg.''

Both Mr and Mrs Wheeler were distressed over the tone of the note.

"I had to walk in to the hospital with the aid of a stick and I came out in a wheelchair,'' said Mrs Wheeler.

Mrs Wheeler, who only recently moved to Wales from Little Hereford, said both she and her husband were upset at the time. She was recovering from an anaesthetic and her husband who had been the victim of heart attacks and suffered with angina 'could have done without it'.

Fresh proposals

On the journey home they had phoned the blue badge disability office that issues them and since spoken to the hospital's car park department.

"I do not think the note could have been official because surely they would have identified themselves,'' said Mrs Wheeler.

The message was written on torn off paper the only clue being words Liverpool & Victoria - written on it.

Parking arrangements at the County Hospital are among the major causes of discontent and complaints.

Mercia Healthcare, responsible for parking, plan to put forward new proposals to be considered by Hereford Hospitals Trust in September.