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    by Tips and Tricks

Shropshire council change parking fees after DMUK intervention

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Shropshire Council have decided to give Blue Badge holders  an extra hour of free parking whilst it runs a  consultation on its parking scheme following a letter from DMUK. 

When the council changed its policy from allowing Badge holders to park free of charge to charging them the same as non-disabled people Helen Dolphin, Disabled Motoring UK Director of Policy and Campaigns wrote to the council explaining that this would be unlawful under the Equality Act 2010. This is because most disabled people take considerably longer to get around and so effectively have to pay more.

DMUK Director of Policy and Campaigns Helen Dolphin

DMUK Director of Policy and Campaigns Helen Dolphin

The council were informed that two successful legal challenges had been taken against Lincoln and Norwich councils for a similar charging scheme to that imposed by SCC. The Norwich case was brought by Helen Dolphin, and four other disabled people  with Norwich City  Council having to change their policy and pay a £2,500  compensation payment to each of the five litigants.  Norwich and Lincoln now allow disabled people double the amount of parking time in their council run car parks. This is more generous than the one free hour currently offered by Shropshire but DMUK hope that following the consultation the council will at the very least adopt the same charging policy as Norwich.

This parking policy was brought to our attention by DMUK member Patrick McDermott who has worked very hard to also help change the councils policy. DMUK has offered to help support Patrick in any case he wishes to bring

If your local authority is bringing in discriminatory parking charges do write to us and let us know as we will do our best to help.

For more information on this CLICK HERE

Related posts:

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  2. Congestion Charging and Road Pricing
  3. Free parking for fraudsters
  4. Disabled Motoring UK criticises Top Gear for parking in disability bays
  5. Blue Badge Reforms Announced

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