The BBC has the politest version of the story. The Mirror is at the other end of the spectrum and The Telegraph somewhere in between.
One curiosity – according to the story Anthony Steen (Conservative MP for Totnes) says he was “rushing” to Westminster but the date of the incident seems to be for a day Parliament wasn’t sitting.
And one exciting detail – my car park expert sources have counted the parking bays and say there are 230 at the train station, of which six are for people with blue badges and four are for parents with children. But Mr Steen says there are too many.
Nice cuddly new Conservative party anyone?
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13 Comments
Mr Steen is taking a lot of stick over this locally. If anything his arrogant response and attacking critics as busybodies and whingers is prolonging the story.
If he’d said ‘sorry’ and accepted the fine the story would be dead now, but Mr Steen’s hubris precludes such an outcome it seems.
As Adrian Sanders MP notes on his blog – Anthony Steen is one of the nicer Tories in the House ! He’s always been eccentric, but he’s seriously misjudged the public mood on this one !
Barrie Wood
Torquay.
I think we can safely say that Anthony is not in any way disabled … anyone remember him challenging our candidate to a race up Totnes high street?
I utterly agree with the point he is making though – there is too much parking put aside for disabled people that is hardly used. What about more parent parking for example? Steen may be a pompous Tory but the feeling amongst my friends is that he has got a good point.
With 230 spaces for all comers that are full, and 6 spaces for the disabled that are not full, of course there are too many spaces than are needed for the disabled. Simple logic. And this man is an MP. Seriously, I know that the Liberal MPs are more intelligent than this. God help me, I actually know 3 of them (but one of those I have only met over the web).
It is nonsense to say that because the main car park is occasionally full that 6 spaces for the disabled is too many.
The question is whether up to six disabled people may need to park there (all day or being dropped off) at any point. If the answer is yes then the number is reasonable.
If the main car park was full then an able bodied person can park somewhere else and walk to the station – an option not open to many disabled people.
But it’s not just the fact he’s parked – it’s the patronising attitude he’s displayed along with it: ‘They need our help’ – no they don’t – they just need people like Steed to obey the clear rules that enable them to participate in society.
And if there are any of his disabled constituencts who have been put out by his selfishness they are hardly likely to want to get in touch with him after his display of ignorance.
I am from Brighton & Hove City and I am outraged at this mp’s attitude over on how many disabled bay’s a town or city has, in my eyes “not enough”, maybe this mp should spend a month in a wheelchair, then go seek these too many disabled bay’s, then tell us if we have too many bay’s.
And if he can not do that, then maybe perhapes he ought to go get a life and stop picking on the disabled, because there is a lot of us and especially when general elections are comming up………..lol
>The question is whether up to six disabled people may need to park there (all day or being dropped off) at any point. If the answer is yes then the number is reasonable.
This is the wrong question too.
The real question is when will the roughly 50% of fraudulent blue disks finally be addressed? A far more serious problem than a few people parking in the wrong place.
Until that happens the entire scheme is a joke.
BTW of course he shouldn’t have parked there.
I am disabled… Regular spaces are too narrow, as I need to open the door fully and I struggle on uneven or sloped pavement. Shall I tell you my disability? NO! What business is it of yours whats wrong with me or anyone else? You have no right to judge me just because you are jealous of me being able to park in the only place I can. I got my badge legitimately- and research shows that actually less than 10% of badges are used fraudulently: more cars are on the road uninsured (11.2%) than with fraudulent badges. If you think a badge is being used fraudulently, get the number and the Issuing council (visible on the badge), and contact them with a description of the perosn using it, or call the police and tell them you think its being used fraudulently- they will look at the photo and seize the badge if necessary.
The DDA specifies the number of spaces- if there are “too many”, then look at the size of the car park! Its likely got so many to make up for the ones people use illegally because they think having a BMW or other posh car is a disability (which it is, but not how they think…)
Disabled people are over 20% of society- but only 4% of the parking is supposed to be reserved- you just are too lazy to walk if you complain: sorry we disabled are such an inconvenience to you and your fast paced life- hope you never become disabled yourself.
This response though shouldn’t be about who should be able to park in disabled spaces- its about who shouldn’t be and what should happen to them. The people who whine about having to walk across a car park… they just worry about themselves more than others- not a good resume for an MP. He needs an ASBO and a ride to Job Centre.
Like all MP’s the law means nothing to them, it’s illegal to park in a disabled parking bay that should be enough.
Well said BSiv.
6 out of 236 seems rather below the 4% figure B Siv quotes (or was that a rather misleading 6 not occupied out of a total of something larger?).
TYPICAL!
I’m a wheelchair user disabled after an accident at work, This week I’ve seen a police car parked in a disabled parking bay, two local council vans, securicor, and numerous people without disabilities.
I watched one night at Tesco all the disabled parking bays being used by people employed within Tesco, it was stated it was lighted so the people felt safer, yes and I parked away from the area in the dark.
Whats the problem well disabled parking bays at say Tesco Asda or railways stations are only concessions they are not legally bound.
Look at the disabled parking on the http://www.direct.gov.uk site and you will see the magic words concession