I made a promise to myself on how long I could go on and not talk about disabled parking, a topic that many disabled people know and love…. Unfortunately, today’s the day I break my promise. While I was having my usual breakfast of Shreddies cereal watching the news, one particular news story caught my attention.

The Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford has announced controversial plans to start charging the use of disabled parking regardless of if they have a disabled badge.

The news story had an accompanying interview with Nick Markwick who represented the Surrey coalition of the disabled. He argued against the proposed changes, saying… “Lots of disabled people are unable to use public transport; they have to use a car to get here. They have no choice.”

He then goes on to say… “What disabled people have fought for over the last 20 to 30 years is being paired away”.

Is Nick right? Now, I believe he is and I agree with his argument saying some disabled people are unable to use public transport and require a car to get around. I know many people who are in this situation and having to pay £4 for disabled parking means the cost could mount up and being disabled isn’t cheap as it is.

Nick Markwick second statement I have more of an issue with, to me, it’s a bit hyperbolic, saying are rights are being paired away because of one hospital charging for disabled parking. You could say that the changes could be a good thing in stopping people who take advantage of disabled spaces that are available. Now I don’t think it would make much of a difference in a hospital where people pay for parking spaces anyway, but if it was used in shopping centres for example where disabled spaces are free, it could deter people from using them.  I don’t wish this to happen, I still think people will use it for the simple fact it is closer and bigger spaces.

What do you think? Do you agree with Nick Markwick or The hospital? Do you think disabled people should start paying for the privilege of disables spaces?  Let me know.

You can watch the full story here. It starts at 00.30.