Your letters - February 2009

Please look after this bear

Following your MediaWatch article (Disability Now January 2009, Don’t just grin and bear it) I am at a loss as to the logic of the campaign against Pudsey Bear.

Richard Downes seems to imply that there should be no charities such as Scope and Children in Need and that all the support should come from the taxpayer. Both these charities do a lot of good work for children and many smaller organisations need the Children in Need money to continue helping disabled youngsters.

As a taxpayer, I would be most unhappy if some of my taxes went to charities that I do not support or agree with.

I also found the campaign to shoot Pudsey deeply offensive, as well as very negative. I don’t think that anything that encourages violence, however misguidedly thought to be harmless “fun”, should be encouraged by a responsible magazine, published by a charity such as yours.

J.K.Hayward, by email

Getting tougher on blue bay abuse: release the rottweiler\

There seems to be a general disregard for whether disabled people can park or not, with supermarkets in particular preferring to hear the ring of the tills rather than the sounds of disgruntled shoppers.

I therefore offer some suggestions for dealing with this problem and offenders:

1. Give local authorities the power to go onto private land where the public also has access.
2. Wheel clamp those found not to be disabled.
3. Issue a £500 fine and 12 penalty points.
4. Charge a £50-per-day excess on top of the £500 fine for a maximum of seven days and then scrap the vehicle.
5. Issue a 12-month driving ban on first-time offenders who abuse disabled parking spaces, a two-year ban for second-time offenders, three years for third-timers, and so on.
6. In addition, make parking in disabled parking spaces without being the card-holder or authority carry a £1,000 fine on the first offence; also, confiscate the blue badges and ban their use for 12 months. For the second offence make it a £5,000 fine and a lifetime confiscation and ban.

As Baywatch (Disability Now campaigns) appears not to be working, such draconian measures are the only wake-up call some people will understand.

Hopefully, such actions would financially hurt those who are wrongfully parking.

Baywatch, though it should work, is a waste of time. It is a toothless bulldog. If you want results, you need an agile rottweiler.

It is now time to take off the velvet gloves and abandon the softly softly approach in favour of a much tougher regime. No voluntary process is going to work.

Bee Chichester, Horncastle, Lincs.

Disabled parkers face discrimination

I was recently issued with a parking ticket on the grounds that I had parked in a disabled bay without displaying my clock, even though I had not exceeded the time limit for the bay.

This means that disabled people can be penalised as though they had exceeded a time limit without having done so (in this case after less than ten minutes).

If a fit person parks where there is a time limit, the officer will note the time he sees it and return later. A ticket will only be issued if the time limit is exceeded.

Surely a disabled person is entitled to have any offence treated in a similar way before being penalised?

A. Hyde, Braintree, Essex

Political will needed to rebuild shattered Iraqi lives

A disabled person’s lot is not an easy one but having read Salam Talib’s account of his life in Baghdad before and after occupation (Disability Now January 2009, Baghdad Nightmares) I realise that by comparison we live in Utopia in Britain.
Iraq had its fair share of disabled people before hostilities and many more have undoubtedly been disabled by the conflict.

Salam says that Iraq’s disabled have the capacity to rebuild their shattered lives. Let’s hope the country has the political
will to allow it.

Spencer Arnott, Holmer Green, Bucks

Flippancy obscures Carter’s seriousness

I wish Paul Carter would be more tolerant of hotels etc. (Disability Now various issues, Backlash). There isn’t that much kindness and help around. And no doubt he is sincere but his jokiness makes him appear not so.

Eunice Wilson, London SW6

New label needed for service-users

Over the last year I have become involved with various Herefordshire County Council and National Health Service Primary Care Trust panels, and advisory meetings to do with the involvement of disabled people in social and health care.

Although, as with any large corporation, progress is slow, I find my views are heard, respected and even acted upon.

One point, however, has come to my notice in particular and I wonder if anyone can come up with an answer.

Most of the panel or committee members have a title, be that a job title, an honorary position, or “carer”, “nurse”, etc, but the rest of us are simply called “service-users” or more commonly just “users” and we don’t much like it. We feel that “users” has connotations of being “ab-users”, in common parlance.

What would we like to be called? Something that is non-sexist, non-ageist and in fact non-discriminatory in every way!
Does anyone have any ideas?

Hillary Stringer, by email

‘No quick fix’ for Metro scooter ban

Some time ago, Nexus, which runs the Tyne and Wear Metro, banned the use of mobility scooters after a number of accidents with scooters, one of which went right through a carriage and out onto the track on the opposite side (see CCTV footage, above).

The ban has caused a lot of problems for disabled people, who cannot now travel as freely as before.

I would like Disability Now to ask Nexus what it is doing to alleviate the danger and let scooters back on the system again.

Peter Wilson, by email

Bernard Garner, Director General of Nexus, which owns, manages and is modernising Metro, said: “We’re working on ways we could get mobility scooters back on Metro. I appreciate the problems the ban causes but there are no quick fixes, as we have to be absolutely sure Metro is safe for all users.

“Nexus recently received a commitment of around £300 million from the government to modernise Metro, with a proportion to be spent on stations and trains as part of this. We will be building better accessibility into these projects.

“In the meantime, can I remind Disability Now readers that electric wheelchairs are not restricted on Metro. If any disabled Tyne and Wear resident has particular issues getting around, they can phone our social inclusion unit on 0191 203 3460 for advice.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ruth Patrick’s piece Dream on (Disability Now January 2009) has led to inquiries about extra payments being made to some disabled people following a pre-budget statement annoucement. Information can be found at: www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/On_a_low_income/DG_10018704