Expressing faith in the Blue Badge Scheme to be an arbiter of who is
disabled in the world displays more faith than the Scheme has in itself.
They emphasise that they are an 'on-street' solution by putting the word in
bold:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_mobility/documents/page/dft_mobili
ty_507582-01.hcsp
They also only mention streets under their (local authority) control. They
make quite clear off-street parking is another thing entirely and used to,
though not any more, advise that off-street parking providers devise their
own schemes. They still make clear other schemes will be in place:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_mobility/documents/page/dft_mobili
ty_507582-04.hcsp
To refer to the Blue Badge Scheme as anything more than the roughest of
indicators to whether someone is disabled by an environment I feel compelled
to believe is institutional discrimination, and a complete mislaying of any
social model of disability (the part that says a SPECIFIC environment or
circumstance can be SPECIFICALLY disabling, sorry for the upper case I can't
get this thing to do italics).
Having said this, I work in a city and on a campus with terminal parking
problems. It's funny hearing DSA-paid for taxis WOULD be more expensive than
providing more parking spaces because, with Cambridge property prices, even
a taxi from hundreds of miles away would, I reckon, be cheaper than creating
(buying) a 10 ft by 20 ft ground space. We have tried to employ mixed
solutions (taxis and parking spaces) and respond to the diverse population
(Blue Badge holders and otherwise) as the DDA, best practice and simple
humaneness guides us. We have had mixed results.
The paradoxes pile up. We know there is a postcode lottery to the scheme,
with councils that don't have vastly complicated traffic and parking
problems being the most relaxed about issuing Blue Badges, while those
councils which do have such problems being the most inflexible.
Understandable enough, but not what you'd call admirable.
Iain Hood
Senior Student Adviser, Learning Support
Student Support Services
APU
East Road
Cambridge
CB1 1PT
01223 363271 ex 2316
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