A fee too far

More and more local authorities are charging disabled people to park in their carparks, says Helen Smith

About a year ago, I wrote in Disability Now about the growing number of councils starting to charge blue badge-holders for parking in their carparks. A year on and it seems the trend has continued.

The Borough Council of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk (BCKLWN) has now announced that it will no longer be providing free parking for blue badge-holders in their council-run carparks.

Leader of the council, Nick Daubney, says: “This is because the council is committed to maintaining council tax levels at or below the rate of inflation and we feel that those who use council carparks should have to pay.“

However, disabled people who rely on their cars to get into the town are furious. Jonathan Toye, from the West Norfolk Disability Information Service, says: “This is yet another expense that disabled people will have to deal with. Many are on a low, fixed income and cannot use public transport because it is inaccessible. Using the car is their only choice.”

Woking Council has also recently announced that it will be charging blue badge-holders to park in its carparks, although local residents will still be able to park for free. But while the residents of Woking may be happy, disabled drivers who live nearby will have to either pay £150 for a three-year season ticket or £1 an hour to park. Blue badge-holder Christine Batham, who lives just outside Woking, says that, because of the new £150 fee, she will no longer be able to visit Woking. She says: “In future I will have to find a new place to shop. I do fear losing contact with my friends.”

There has been increasing pressure on councils to keep council tax bills low and it seems charging blue badge-holders is an easy way to make money. BCKLWN claims that, by charging blue badge-holders to park, it expects to make an additional £240,000 a year, and I expect the carpark revenue in Woking will also increase.

BCKLWN has said that disabled people are no less able to pay than anyone else. What they’ve not taken into consideration is that disabled people often have no choice but to use their cars. Even if my local bus service ran accessible buses, I couldn’t easily get to the bus stop to use them. I also can’t carry my shopping far and I know that however quickly I race about doing my shopping I will still take considerably longer than a non-disabled person, so I would have to pay considerably more.

I contacted the Local Government Association (LGA) to find out what they thought about this issue. Unfortunately, their spokesperson said they didn’t have a view on this. Although the association may not have a view, disabled people who are struggling to meet this additional cost of motoring most definitely do!