A FAMILY seeking a disabled parking bay for their six-year-old daughter who suffers from a rare brain condition were told they could have to wait until 2020, due to council budget restrictions.

Justin Horton's daughter, Emelene, was born with a condition known as partial agenesis of the corpus callosum – or Partial ACC, which means that the two sides of her brain are unable to communicate with one another.

Consequently, she has difficulties with coordination, eating and severe fatigue, and her ability to learn is impaired.

"To put it simply, she’s a six year old with the body and mind of a three year old," says her father.

"As time has gone on her development has been slower and slower. Most of the time she’s in her wheelchair. She's very uncoordinated, so she has a lot of falls.

"Even with things like swallowing she has difficulty, so she has to have a soft diet."

Already facing severe challenges, Emelene also subsequently developed epilepsy and at her worst was having up to 12 fits an hour.

With the increasing difficulties that both they and their daughter were facing, parents Justin and Rebecca Horton came to the conclusion that they needed additional help to manage their daughter's condition.

"We took the decision to look into getting a disabled parking bay," said Mr Horton. "We had a disabled badge already, but because there is public parking outside the house anyone can park there.

"Queen’s Road is a busy road through Penarth, so the parking comes under a lot of pressure, and with the new developments up and coming that will only increase."

Mr Horton contacted the Vale of Glamorgan Council to submit evidence as to why they needed the bay, along with a letter of support from their neighbour.

Once the council had carried out their necessary investigations, the Horton family received the welcome news that their request had been approved.

But when Mr Horton emailed the council officer to inquire how long they would have to wait for the bay to be painted, he was appalled at what he discovered.

"She said that regrettably, they only have the funding for 10 bays a year and have a shortlist that takes them into the financial year 2020," said Mr Horton.

"I even said can we do a fundraiser and pay for it ourselves, but they refused, saying this wasn't the policy of the authority.

"I’m shocked and I’m disappointed that, in these times, they can’t provide a painted bay for a disabled child. We’re pretty outraged by it and I wish there was a solution, but it appears there isn’t."

Vale of Glamorgan Council have since issued a statement saying that they have released additional funding in response to the issues raised by Mr Horton, which will hopefully help to reduce the period of time spent waiting for the bay to be installed.

A spokesman said: "We realise of course that the provision of disabled bays can make a great difference to people’s everyday lives. In light of the concerns raised by Mr Horton, the leader of the council has instructed an immediate review of this process.

"In the short term, more funding has been allocated to allow us to install a greater number of disabled parking bays this financial year.

"This should ensure that Mr Horton’s application and others are dealt with far quicker than would otherwise have been the case. All residents with outstanding applications will be contacted shortly to advise them of this position."