You may, or may not, have noticed that things have gone a little quiet over here… That’s because I’ve been heavily involved in setting up York Disability Rights Forum and before we had even launched, we leapt into action.
There have been changes to city centre Blue Badge parking all over England as councils scramble to make their city welcoming but suitable for social distancing. In a number of city centres, on the street Blue Badge parking has been suspended and inadequate alternatives have been implemented, without consultation.
In York, the changes mean parking outside the city walls, in a car park away from the shops and using a ‘shuttle service’. At the time of the changes, the communication was poor and information about the nature of the shuttle service was scant. As such, we – York Disability Rights Forum – felt we needed to take urgent action. We were already recieving emails from other disabled people in the city about the issue and even though we hadn’t really launched, we felt this was too important not to speak up about.
We contacted the local media about our concerns, wrote to ward councillors and the relevant council staff and were invited to a zoom meeting to raise the issues we had. They boiled down to concerns about the appropriateness and accessibility of the changes, a lack of information and the language used to communicate what little was shared.
As such, I’ve been a bit busy! And also my head is filled with things about Blue Badges etc. However, I did want to write something for my blog and so Blue Badge changes it is!
I am pleased to say that there is now more information on the council website about the shuttle service, which also answers key questions about how accessible the service is and how safe it is given coronavirus is the reason it was implemented!
Further, I am meeting with someone from the council this week to talk about communication and consultation.
Everything got off to rather a hurried start with the forum but it’s exciting to see our work making a difference and I’m passionate about speaking up and advocating for the wider disability community in York.
I’m fully aware I post on a wide range of topics here and I don’t know how many of you are actually interested in York and disability together but as I said at the start, this is an issue that is happening across the country. You personally may not be affected by the changes but it’s likely you know someone who is, whether it’s a friend or a cousin or a grandparent.
Unlocking Words 