News & Features

Baywatch Appeal

Posted in General News on Tuesday, October 1st, 2019

Last month we revealed the results of Baywatch Campaign, which highlighted there is still an alarming amount of disabled parking abuse taking place in supermarkets across the UK. We have been speaking to the public and DMUK members at events throughout the summer and disabled parking abuse is still the most common issue that you want to talk about. The Blue Badge scheme changed on the 30th August 2019 to be more inclusive of people with hidden disabilities which we predict will see a rise in the number of Blue Badge holders.

It’s because of all these reasons that we feel more needs to be done to tackle this problem. However, Disabled Motoring UK has suffered for several years because of a fall in full members leading to a lack of funding. We need to increase the charity’s income so that we can further our campaigning efforts. DMUK is now the only charity left that specifically supports and campaigns for disabled motorists. Other charities in this field have had to close because they can’t secure funding and we are determined for this not to happen to Disabled Motoring UK. If Disabled Motoring UK was to disappear there would be no organisation that advocates the needs of disabled motorists. We are therefore launching a fundraising initiative called the ‘Baywatch Appeal’ and encourage you to donate if you are able to. Funds raised from this appeal will help support our campaigning activities.

Campaigning Activities

The main focus of our campaigning activities this year has been with our Baywatch campaign. We will now use these results to promote the need for effective disabled parking bay management. Other campaigning activities include;

  • Responding to government consultations
  • Attending DfT meetings about the Blue Badge
  • Submitting evidence to parliamentary enquiries
  • Supporting Guide Dogs pavement parking campaign
  • Working with Highways England to improve safety of disabled motorists
  • Contacting local authorities about Blue Badge changes
  • Working with Motability
  • Representing disabled motorists at DVLA charities forum
  • Improving disabled parking by furthering the Disabled Parking Accreditation
  • Being DVLA Stakeholders
  • Contributing as Transport Focus Stakeholders
  • Collaborating with Disability Rights UK on hospital parking charges
  • Plus much, much more

As you can see the charity is extremely busy ensuring that the voice of disabled motorists is heard. We rely solely on membership subscriptions and donations to keep doing this work.

How you can help

To donate to our ‘Baywatch Appeal’ please call the office on 01508 489449 to donate over the phone, visit our website www.disabledmotoring.org/donate or simply send a cheque made payable to Disabled Motoring UK. If you’d like to give a regular donation we can also do this over the phone.

We’d like to thank all of you for supporting the charity.

 

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Mick Guy's Gravatar
Mick Guy

Tuesday, October, 1st, 2019

A possible avenue for funding could come from the banking fines such as libor.

LES EVANS's Gravatar
LES EVANS

Wednesday, October, 2nd, 2019

I fully agree witht h misuse of disable parking bays, only a few days ago, I tried to park, in my local town,only to find a van parked in the last spot, and a business person betantly parked outside his shop, on confronting him, he said its my shop, where should I park! the cheek of some people