THE council has relented after an elderly man and his disabled wife were blocked from buying a residents' parking permit even though most of their neighbours have one.

The original decision made it difficult for Kayleigh Wheeler to visit them in Priory Avenue, Taunton. County Hall only changed its mind after your County Gazette intervened.

Kayleigh had applied for the permit and a visitor's permit so she could carry out her duties as her mother's carer every day.

Earlier this week she said: "I recently moved from a house nearby so need to drive in every day.

"When we asked for a permit it was declined. The council said we and four neighbours weren't entitled to one, even though everyone else in the street can have one.

"When I told them dad had one until three years ago, they said he wasn't entitled to one and never had been. They said the permit had been issued in error."

Kayleigh had to pay to leave her car in a car park or try to find a spot in a nearby street each time she visited her mum, Gill, 59, and dad Les, 70.

"I'm mum's registered carer. She's really poorly and sometimes falls and has frequent epileptic fits," she told the Gazette earlier this week.

"I explained my situation to the council, but they still said no.

"I spend the majority of my days with mum. As well as helping with her care, I take her shopping or for whatever she needs to do.

"If I need to get there in a hurry, it could be impossible to find anywhere near the house to park."

A Somerset County Council spokesman said it inherited the boundary map for parking permits when it took on responsibility for on-street parking and the five houses in Priory Avenue were outside that boundary.

He added: "Following the request from the relative of a resident, we reviewed the information received from the district council and identified an anomaly which excluded properties, including the one concerned.

"We have amended our online data base to enable residents to now obtain permits and would like to thank her for bringing this to our attention – we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused."

After receiving the news from the Gazette, Kayleigh said: "My parents and myself are over the Moon at Somerset County Council's change of stance on the matter."