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Parking boss in parking scandal!

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Vaughan | 14:17 UK time, Wednesday, 29 October 2008

Reform of the blue badge parking system, in a bid to crack down on fraud, has been all over the news recently. Even Ouch's own Disability Bitch was moved to stop eating cake, get off the sofa and write about it last week.

But for a moment, I don't want to talk about fraud. I want to talk about what sort of non-disabled people park in our parking bays. Why oh why oh why (and yes, I know I sound like I'm writing a letter to a local newspaper) does it always seem to be the people who should know better who break this particular rule? Police officers, mayors, government ministers. And now, who is - oh, feel the irony! - actually the person responsible for parking in the area. Oops.

Geoffrey Theobald, in his role as the cabinet member for transport, has led a series of campaigns against the abuse of disabled parking badges, recently parked his very posh and shiny blue Jaguar in a disabled bay at Brighton and Hove City Council's head office when attending a meeting there.

When asked about the incident, Councillor Theobald said: "Every single space in the car park is a very short distance from the door and there is a guy who keeps a constant watch on it and if I needed to move the car I would have come straight down. I could have been 30 minutes late trying to find a space. What more am I expected to do?"

Earlier this year, however, Mr Theobald said that it was important to "make sure disabled parking is available for those who really need it". Hmm.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    "Why (...) does it always seem to be the people who should know better who break this particular rule?"

    Because everybody does it, but those people are newsworthy for doing it.

    Otherwise the local rag would be full of nothing more than:
    Joe Bloggs, a father of two and head of sales at a local firm, was today given a ticket for parking in a disabled parking bay without a badge. Mr Bloggs, 47, said "I was only going to the cashpoint, and besides, I don't see any people in wheelchairs here, do you?"

    In related news, Mrs Jane Doe was also asked to move her car after wrongly parking in a disabled space. "It's just not fair," she told our reporter, "if I hadn't used that space I would have had to park in the next car park which is a *whole* hundred yards away and around the corner - disabled people aren't the only ones with rights!"

  • Comment number 2.

    I must admit, I sometimes park in disabled bays without a badge.

    I'm not some horrible person abusing the spaces because I'm too lazy to walk to the shops. I'd even go as far as saying it's not my fault. My local council is so completely incompetent that they still haven't managed to give me a blue badge. I've tried to apply 3 times so, but every time they loose the application before it's processed.

    My condition goes up and down, so sometimes you wouldn't think there's anything wrong with me, (in which case I don't use the spaces), but other times I can't manage more than a few yards with 2 sticks, or I use a wheelchair.

    So what else can I do?

    I really hope they decide to centralise the application process. I can't see any other way to end this situation.

  • Comment number 3.

    Once again those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. Now lets give this unspeakable criton how it would affect me.
    I am a T1-T4 Para I come into his car park I can not see a disabled bay full, now he quoting if someone gets me I shall come right away and move it!! Yeah right so I then got to either double park leaving my engine running put my wheelchair together go inside and say hello would you please tell the owners of blue jag so and so to move his car please then go back and wait hoping it is not raining!! and then when Mr nice so and so comes and moves his car I hope it wont mean lots of silly jugerling, so I must then either put my wheelchair back in to my car then park it, O I forgot as I left the engine running I just hope some bright spark has not taken off with it when I was asking inside if Mr So and So would be as kind to move his car!!! Mobility will be most pleased if I rung them and said excuse me my car has been stolen and the reason why is and give the reason! comments from Mobility will be accept on here.
    So when my car is parked I must then reassamble my chair and go inside. Did I add how long this would have taken me or if it had been wet how wet I had got.
    Yes once again those wonderful words I have heard so often I was only in there for five mintues

  • Comment number 4.

    Once again those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. Now lets give this unspeakable criton how it would affect me.
    I am a T1-T4 Para I come into his car park I can not see any disabled bays as it is all full, now he is quoting the following if someone gets me I shall come right away and move it!! Yeah right so I have then got to either double park leaving my engine running to put my wheelchair together go inside, and say hello would you please tell the owners of blue jag so and so to move his car please then go back out and wait hoping it is not raining!! and then when Mr nice so and so comes and moves his car, I hope it wont mean lots of silly jugerling, so I must then either put my wheelchair back in to my car then hopefully park it in the disabled bay, O I forgot as I left the engine running I just hope some bright spark has not taken off with it when I was asking inside if Mr So and So would be as kind to move his car!!! Mobility will be most pleased if I rung them and said "excuse me my car has been stolen", and then gave the reason why!!! comments from Mobility will be accept on here.
    So when my car is finally parked, I must then reassamble my chair and go inside. Did I add how long this would have taken me or if it had been wet how wet I had got.
    Yes once again those wonderful words I have heard so often I was only in there for five mintues

  • Comment number 5.

    I think he (counciler) was selfish (I'm alright Jack blow you)

  • Comment number 6.

    One needs to look at why there is a problem to cause this.
    Simple - there are more cars using the car park than spaces in it because the council have not allotted enough of the taxpayers money to providing enough space either horizontally or vertically. They would rather pay fit healthy men to walk the streets putting bins on a little lift to empty the rubbish. Who does the rest of the work of the refuse collector - the elderly, disabled, poorly residents who cannot drive their car to park in a disabled space by the shops, because they have to use their bus passes or mobile scooters to the local shops! You have a councellor who uses poll tax pay to fund his car in Brighton? My oh my! We've got one here who does 15 mile journeys to go to meetings in a TAXI!! True he doesn't take up a disabled space, he just makes us all do the job of refuse collectors pushing wheely bins 10 times the distance of his paid employees while we pay them to have the work ourselves. A car is a luxury nowadays, and don't I know it now a young speeder wrote mine off so I can't get to a carparking space at all.

  • Comment number 7.

    I don't know how many times I've tried to convince ineligible people from illegally parking in disabled spaces and also receive the same reply "I'll be back in a sec." Sure...

    It's time to crack down and start fining people on the spot for this outrageous behavior. Isn't there some type of citizen's arrest or report that can be implemented? A photo and a report sent to the police with details of the event?

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