A DISABLED woman has lost a long-running High Court appeal over parking in Colchester High Street.

Jade Hamnett took Essex County Council to court in 2013 after it stopped cars accessing the High Street and took away the parking spaces for blue badge holders.

Miss Hamnett argued it was discriminatory against disabled people and launched a High Court bid.

The court turned down her application for a review of the order but she launched an appeal.

Now that has also been dismissed.

However, Ms Hamnett said she was not disappointed and had achieved what she had set out to do.

She said:“The reason why we appealed was nothing to do with Colchester.

“If we had not done so, the law would’ve been left in a negative slant towards other people bringing a similar case.”

The council stopped cars from accessing High Street in March 2013 after a public consultation and removed parking spaces for blue badge holders and instead telling them to park in nearby car parks and other allocated bays.

Ms Hamnett and Fair Access to Colchester campaign group said the decision was discriminatory to disabled people as they were unable to walk the extended distance.

The experiment was halted just a month later with the blue badge parking reinstated in High Street.

Ms Hamnett said there were two acts which advised people different things as to how they should launch a legal lawsuit against traffic regulation orders and experimental traffic regulation orders.

On one hand, the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 states such cases should be heard in the High Court.

However, the Equality Act 2010 says instead it should be heard in county courts.

The appeal ruling gave clarification for future cases by saying they should be heard in county courts.

It said there was no need to make a ruling on the discriminatory aspect of the case as the road orders were no longer in place.

Ms Hamnett said it was wrong to say the council had won the original argument of discrimination.

She said: “The council has not won all parts.

“All the judge has said is they met the legal minimum requirements for a consultation.

“The case on whether the action was discriminatory for disabled people has never been heard as the orders were removed by the time this came to court.

“We still don’t know, had the council not done that, if this would have been discriminatory or not.”