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 | You and Yours - Transcript ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4 |
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| TX: 22.01.04 – WOMAN AWARDED £2,000 COMPENSATION FOR BEING DENIED A DISABLED PARKING BAY PRESENTER: JOHN WAITE |
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| THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WAITE Do you remember Neville Sanders? He was the leader of Peterborough Council who was so concerned that the disabled parking bay system was being abused that he wanted to visit all the blue badge holders in person to assess whether they were genuine or not. Meanwhile he suspended 30 disabled parking bays whilst the assessment was being carried out. While at the time we spoke to 72-year-old Jean North, she had arthritis and angina and could only walk very small distances. She wanted a disabled parking bay outside her house but she was turned down. And she told us she was particularly angry after she saw a letter written by Mr Sanders to another council member about her case. NORTH The letter says that if there was a £5 note laying on the floor I could beat him to it, even with a bad foot I could still beat him to it. No way could I beat him to it, I can't walk that far, let alone run and pick up a £5 note. WAITE Well Mrs North decided to bring a case against Peterborough City Council with the help of the Disability Law Service and judgement was handed down this week. Paraic O'Brien joins us. Paraic what's happened? O'BRIEN Well good news for Mrs North, she's been awarded £2,000 by the judge and basically that's made up of a £1,000 compensation for the fact that she hasn't had a parking bay for a year and a £1,000 for the distress caused by the offensive nature of the correspondence with Mr Sanders. I must add here that Mr Sanders has subsequently been dismissed as leader of the council over what was described to me as an unrelated inappropriate outburst but he's still a council member. WAITE And what does he have to say about Mrs North's case now? O'BRIEN Well when we first ran the story we tried to talk to Mr Sanders but he repeatedly put the phone down on us, so with a certain amount of trepidation I phoned him last night and asked him for some reaction to the verdict. Surprisingly he was happy to talk and I started by asking him about his reaction to the verdict. SANDERS Well that's the sign of today's times - everybody's getting litigation minded. But Mrs North should remember that her £2,000 is her neighbour's council tax increase and I hope that she's well pleased with herself. O'BRIEN You do seem to have a habit though of sort of shooting you mouth off a little don't you - have you learnt anything from it? SANDERS I have a habit of what you see is what you get. Yes I do shoot me mouth off but diplomacy is not my strongest point. WAITE An unrepentant Mr Neville Sanders. Back to the You and Yours homepage The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ is not responsible for external websites |
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