Who is allowed to park in the lower car park now. I thought it was just players, officials and possibly corporate hospitality people. Is it also available to season ticket holders/paying supporters/some other category?
On my rare visits to AP I always park on the street but then of course I am physically able to. Some aren't.
In response to Geoffrey, It doesn't take a genius to work out why the club would want to minimise the number of cars moving in a constrained space at the same time as several thousand people are walking through that same space. Do try to think before you abuse.
Whilst on the topic of parking I have to say that my own experience (and that of at least one other Frank Adams Club member) at the Villa game does not inspire confidence. I had an honoured guest on that occasion and was embarrassed and incensed as I reached the main gates to have cones plonked down in front of the car and having to call the steward over to explain (which he would not otherwise have done!) what was going on. "Car park's full, mate" was the charming response. Given that I had paid for a space (upper tier) on 14 December to be sure of having no problems on the big day (!), I was seething and without the help of one of the guys in charge of the Roofline car park would have had to drive home to watch the game on TV. After the game I mentioned what had happened to one of the Trust Directors as we were departing. He asked me to send him an email about what had happened. This I did. A couple of weeks passed I and I heard nothing. I contacted the Director in question and he informed me that my email had been passed to the Head of Commercial. The latter person joined a group of us in the Lounge a few weeks ago but when I joked that he had come to talk to me about the Villa parking shambles he appeared not to know what I was talking about. Ah well, c'est la vie.
@DevC - One thing that would surprise me is if many disabled fans were not getting to the ground by 2.30 if not earlier. Simply getting to the appropriate spots in the stadium can take a substantial amount of time, and that is made considerably more difficult when there are 100's of people trying to do the same thing.
The vast majority choose to get there earlier and do it in their own time so a curfew on a drop off bay/bays would not necessarily be an obstacle.
Understood Fallen. I wasn't querying your solution, if it is workable, safe for all and appropriately sensitive to the needs of disabled supporters to have a suitably placed drop off point (possibly with sheltered waiting) to allow a companion to then park the car elsewhere, that seems a sensible solution to me. Anything that facilitates whatever disabled spaces are available to be targeted to those most genuinely needing them the better.
Sadly I had to spell out to one regular poster, totally focused on abuse rather than thinking for himself, why it isn't a very good idea to have more car movements through an area where 4000 people are walking than absolutely necessary.
@micra Alas your tale of emails falling on deaf ears is something I am hearing more and more from both the Trust and the club itself. Your reaction is admirable but as a club needing its supporters it is a very very poor show in my opinion.
@DevC That was actually the most complimentary I have ever been to anyone on this forum so lose the persecution complex will you.
Are there actually 215 parking spaces or was that the assumption I assumed it be?
I'm personally very disappointed by the club taking this action. Blue Badge holders will have some sort of 'protected characteristic' (to use the terminology) that not providing equal opportunity (i.e. not equal prices if they have no choice but to park right outside the ground because of their 'protected characteristic' while an able-bodied person could park 20 mins walk from the ground and walk in) could potentially lead to the club being found to be discriminating against blue badge holders.
If the club suspects misuse, they can station a steward with the necessary training in the area to monitor who is driving the vehicle.
If providing more disabled spaces is not an option, then the club could look into providing a service for disabled supporters that picks them up in a suitably modified minibus where possible. Not an ideal, or at first glance a cheap solution, but it surely is worth a look at in order to make sure that the club is welcoming to our disabled supporters, and to avoid potentially costly legal action further down the line.
Nice if unconvincing attempt to wriggle, Geoffrey. As I suspect you well know 215 is a time as surely was obvious to all from the context. Do stop trying so hard to be clever. it just makes you look a bit of a dick.
I think your fears of expensive legal action is misplaced, Marginalista. there is no obligation to provide free parking to blue badge holders. The club could very well argue (I suspect accurately|) that this plan is an attempt to remove economic advantages from those with the right but not need to park in the limited spaces and hence to encourage appropriate need.
However well trained, it would be an impossible job, and no doubt one that resulted in regular conflict, to ask anyone to make an instant assessment on whether an individual had such severe needs that he had to park in a free space or whether actually he could park elsewhere and walk.
The playground risks derailing this important discussion.
I think the club have quite simply got this wrong. It is not down to them to police who uses blue badges incorrectly by confronting people or setting up a payment system to discrimate against those that genuinely need to access to parking close to the ground.
What is more interesting is that a week on the club or Trust has not made any comment. Maybe tomorrow's BFP will contain something. As it stands it is a PR mistake and runs the risk of becoming a chance to see how stuborn the club are.
@DevC Sorry for not making what I suggested clearer, it would be to make sure the person was who the named person on the badge was (by means of driving licence or other ID), rather than Gareth from The Office sticking needles into peoples' legs or asking them to walk a mile. The antics of Atos in declaring disabled people as 'fit for work' when clearly they are not should be proof enough that such snap judgements are morally indefensible.
As for the attempt to disincentivise people with the right but not need to park, then putting prices up is a means to this end, though when it discriminates against those who have no means of getting to the ground but to park right outside then it surely puts the club on course for a potential breach of the Equality Act 2010.
You are right that the club has no obligation to provide bays marked as 'disabled', though the provision of these is the least the club can do to make itself more welcoming to disabled supporters.
I haven't studied it particularly, but there do seem to be a reasonable amount of disabled car parking bays at AP for the amount of fans attending games, and it really wouldn't surprise me if people were using their blue badged cars to go to the football without the disabled persons attending themselves, the club must know how many disabled tickets they sell and I'm guessing that the numbers don't match up, so this is to stop "abled bodied" people in blue badged cars using up disabled bays, I'd say it's more important to guarantee spaces albeit at a cost than to make spaces free at a risk of genuinely disabled people not being able to park...
@micra Regarding your scheme, you seem to be suggesting that blue badge holders have to be STH in order to secure a parking space. Why? (Or is it a fiendish way to try to sell more STs?) As for your experience of not being able to park in the lower car park because it was full and you were with an 'honoured guest' (whatever that means), what has that to do with this discussion? My advice is next time we have a big cup game get ther earlier.
@Doob. I think the point @micra is making here is that he had paid IN ADVANCE for a parking space. Your advice to get there earlier ignores the fact that the club should not be taking money in advance for spaces that have been occupied by someone else. The club by taking the payment entered into a binding contract with micra and as far as I am aware there was no condition in that contract that the space had to be occupied by a set time. It is the same principle as having a season ticket under which you are entitled to come into the ground at any time after the gates are opened even during the game.
I'll ignore the startling hypocrisy of Geoffrey above.
The club is not discriminating against anyone on price - if the BFP story is true (as yet unconfirmed) it is simply to remove discrimination in favour of the blue badge holders by making them pay the same as everyone else. Whether there is moral argument for price discrimination in favour of disabled (or elderly for that matter) is a separate discussion.
In this case, as I said early you have to look at the clubs motivations. It is extremely unlikely that the club is not aware of its responsibilities under the Equality Act of 2010, so I think we can ignore that objection. It is extremely unlikely that the club is taking this action as a money making exercise - the sums involved are not worth the hassle,
So there has to be another reason.
IF there was a limited number of spaces available for disabled parking and this number could not be increased and these spaces regularly fill, then surely everyone would wish all reasonable attempts be made to ensure these spaces were used by those who need them most.
By removing the incentive for those holding a blue badge who don't really need to park that close to the ground to do so thereby saving themselves money, it is a reasonable hope that the club can go some way to ensure that the spaces it has got are used as well as possible. That seems reasonable to me.
As "username" says above, I would rather people who genuinely need the spaces get to use them but have to pay £5 than those people being unable to use them at all.
Thanks @mooneyman. Nice to know that someone read and understood my post and its relevance (as opposed to giving it a quick glance). I did think myself that I might have overstepped the mark by recounting the tale of the Villa parking fiasco but it seemed relevant to me as the situation was frustrating and embarrassing particularly as my guest was a highly respected friend who felt honoured to be invited to "the big match" as my guest. If @Doob is unable to relate to this, that's his problem and I don't need his advice on when to get to the ground. After nearly 50 years as a season ticket holder I think I know. I also made it clear that it was the upper tier that I paid £8 for on 14 December - weeks before the match.
You argument that removing the incentive for those holding a blue badge to park there to save money isn't really logical. I would suggest that those people abusing the blue badge park there for convenience, rather than with the principal object of saving money.
Hopefully some of the people running the club will have a more sensible and caring attitude to the disadvantaged sections of the community than yourself Dev.
Re your first paragraph, Mr Mooney, I suspect you are partially right and the solution partially effective. If no more spaces can be made available, hard to see other steps that can be put in place to ensure optimum utilisation of the spaces available for the maximum benefit of the disabled community.
i rather like the idea above to create a drop off zone such that some disabled supporters can be dropped off.
What are your "sensible and caring" suggestions to how to achieve what we both wish, those disabled supporters who really need close parking to the ground get it. The easy answer is create more spaces, this will have occurred to the club, so maybe think of some alternatives if that can’t be done.
Why not request that disabled people register access to the spaces? I'm sure they will be supportive of such a move if the club thinks other people are using blue badges when they are not disabled.
Then have a steward monitor access to the bays before match day, only allowing people who have registered their name/car to park in them?
That's a good suggestion @bill_stickers. In my experience most disabled people are used to having to make arrangements re travel and transport in advance of the day itself.
1) Not all of the (several hundred) lower car park spaces are taken up by players, officials and staff.
2) It is possible to BUY a season pass for the lower car park.
3) It is coming towards the end of the season.
Solution:
Take 20 lower car park spaces off sale for next season. The 20 which are closest to the most appropriate entrance to the stadium. Add these to the existing (10-20?) spaces and suddenly we have more than enough ring fenced for those who need them. Make sure everyone using one of the spaces is displaying a blue badge.
@bill_stickers and@AttitudeEra -You are very much in tune with my suggestions above but simply displaying a blue badge is not enough. Using friends/relatives badges is not uncommon apparently.
So when this issue came up and was debated on the FB page months ago, without doing a Richie, one of the trust type people ( I do forget the name) PMd me and said they had to bring this fee/registration in to stop the people who are illegitimately using the spaces.
Clearly the big problem is that legitimate blue badge users are now forced to stump up a fiver a game. One such guy on the FB group very reasonably said that his income is absolutely miniscule, so such a charge threatened him coming any more.
I suppose the one positive of this move is that in registering and paying, you are likely to bin the fakers, who would be no better off parking there now, then just in the regular parking. But clearly it affects the legitimate users, some of whom may ruin them coming any more.
I suppose it depends how big a problem this misuse is, and how many justified blue badgers have found they cannot get a space...
I am not convinced that you will as you say "bin the fakers" Mr Malone. Ok they will have to pay now, but what is their alternative, either get here earlier and walk a fair way or pay in one of the charity areas.
If they can afford the charge then surely they will continue to use the disabled spaces for convenience value?
A number of things about this now not making sense
1) The story only appeared in the BFP a few days ago (on Apr 1st - co-incidence?) . How could the facebookers have ben talking about it months ago.
2) A week on this doesn't seem to have been announced anywhere officially?
3) Apparently approx. 50 blue badges are issued per 1000 people. On that basis if same proportion applied to WWFC crowd you would need approximately 200 disabled parking spaces to accommodate demand.
4) The facebook disabled person who wouldn't be able to come any more. Well surely that cant be typical. Most (not all admittedly) blue badge holders who needed a space right by the stadium would surely be likely to travel with at least one family/friend. So £5 for parking means £2.50 each. If their income is "miniscule" can they really afford £20 or so for match access. If they can afford £20 can it be that many cannot afford £22.50. Surely this must be a tiny number.
5) Fortunately neither I nor any of my family are disabled, so its hard to put myself in the shoes of those who are. Surely the current situation must be incredibly unsatisfactory - 10 spaces first come first served. If you are the 11th and cannot park but cannot walk from alternative parking, you are currently royally b*ggered. Surely a system of paying £5 PER CAR but knowing you have a space is better than a free for all
with presumably a pretty high chance that when you get to the ground, you cant park so cant go.
Not sure this is now making a lot of sense.
Surely all that needs to be done is for someone to look and see if the name on the badge matches the name of someone in the vehicle? It really can't be that hard, since the stewards physically let each car into the lower car park one at a time, based on whether they have a pass to be there or not.
They need go no further, that is not their job. Whether the person in the vehicle can or can't walk freely, see clearly, hear well, or whether the person has any sign whatsoever of having a disability is none of their business. Just whether or not one of the people in the vehicle is named on the blue badge.
@mooneyman , I suppose it depends how early the top tier sells out? Does it sell out every game, or just a couple of games a season? If it doesn't sell out very often, the risk of abusing the space doesn't warrant much benefit, to gain about 200metres territory.
Unless they let you out much earlier in the lower tier than from the top tier?
Having used the bus, that used to have priority leave status, but now seems to go after almost every car has left, I wonder if there is priority access lower tier?
@AttitudeEra , nice idea in theory, but as per the message from the trust guy, interrogating people about disabled badges is a very emotive issue! I'm sure someone asked at the time why they didn't patrol the current area!
Imagine if they charge for parking, and insist on ID checks! My word that'd go down well!
@AttitudeEra - Weirdly, you cannot look through the glass and match the person to the badge.
The blue badge is two sided. One has a picture and a little basic information. The other has the date that it stops being valid. The date side is the only legal side to display the blue badge. Therefore it is impossible to simply match the picture to the person at a glance. You have to ask to examine the badge.
@DevC You would be surprised how many disabled or carers will use their last £20 to get to the football. In many cases it is the only time that they get to see people outside their immediate family/group/carers.
@DevC , I can answer for certain on your point 1, and without doing what others accuseyou of doing quite regularly, namely making "assumptions", can I make the assumption that you are either not on the Wycombe Wanderers FB group, or don't read it very often?
I had a look back, and here's the original first message in a thread that whipped up 47 messages...
so it was "Known" we intended to do this at least 3 1/2months back.
Dave Gardner
16 December 2015
..
Do you think it is right to charge for disabled parking in the club car park?
I know the club needs all the money it can get. And I guess I will be on my own on this. But Disability isn't a life style choice.
Comments
Who is allowed to park in the lower car park now. I thought it was just players, officials and possibly corporate hospitality people. Is it also available to season ticket holders/paying supporters/some other category?
On my rare visits to AP I always park on the street but then of course I am physically able to. Some aren't.
In response to Geoffrey, It doesn't take a genius to work out why the club would want to minimise the number of cars moving in a constrained space at the same time as several thousand people are walking through that same space. Do try to think before you abuse.
Whilst on the topic of parking I have to say that my own experience (and that of at least one other Frank Adams Club member) at the Villa game does not inspire confidence. I had an honoured guest on that occasion and was embarrassed and incensed as I reached the main gates to have cones plonked down in front of the car and having to call the steward over to explain (which he would not otherwise have done!) what was going on. "Car park's full, mate" was the charming response. Given that I had paid for a space (upper tier) on 14 December to be sure of having no problems on the big day (!), I was seething and without the help of one of the guys in charge of the Roofline car park would have had to drive home to watch the game on TV. After the game I mentioned what had happened to one of the Trust Directors as we were departing. He asked me to send him an email about what had happened. This I did. A couple of weeks passed I and I heard nothing. I contacted the Director in question and he informed me that my email had been passed to the Head of Commercial. The latter person joined a group of us in the Lounge a few weeks ago but when I joked that he had come to talk to me about the Villa parking shambles he appeared not to know what I was talking about. Ah well, c'est la vie.
@DevC - One thing that would surprise me is if many disabled fans were not getting to the ground by 2.30 if not earlier. Simply getting to the appropriate spots in the stadium can take a substantial amount of time, and that is made considerably more difficult when there are 100's of people trying to do the same thing.
The vast majority choose to get there earlier and do it in their own time so a curfew on a drop off bay/bays would not necessarily be an obstacle.
Understood Fallen. I wasn't querying your solution, if it is workable, safe for all and appropriately sensitive to the needs of disabled supporters to have a suitably placed drop off point (possibly with sheltered waiting) to allow a companion to then park the car elsewhere, that seems a sensible solution to me. Anything that facilitates whatever disabled spaces are available to be targeted to those most genuinely needing them the better.
Sadly I had to spell out to one regular poster, totally focused on abuse rather than thinking for himself, why it isn't a very good idea to have more car movements through an area where 4000 people are walking than absolutely necessary.
@micra Alas your tale of emails falling on deaf ears is something I am hearing more and more from both the Trust and the club itself. Your reaction is admirable but as a club needing its supporters it is a very very poor show in my opinion.
@DevC That was actually the most complimentary I have ever been to anyone on this forum so lose the persecution complex will you.
Are there actually 215 parking spaces or was that the assumption I assumed it be?
I'm personally very disappointed by the club taking this action. Blue Badge holders will have some sort of 'protected characteristic' (to use the terminology) that not providing equal opportunity (i.e. not equal prices if they have no choice but to park right outside the ground because of their 'protected characteristic' while an able-bodied person could park 20 mins walk from the ground and walk in) could potentially lead to the club being found to be discriminating against blue badge holders.
If the club suspects misuse, they can station a steward with the necessary training in the area to monitor who is driving the vehicle.
If providing more disabled spaces is not an option, then the club could look into providing a service for disabled supporters that picks them up in a suitably modified minibus where possible. Not an ideal, or at first glance a cheap solution, but it surely is worth a look at in order to make sure that the club is welcoming to our disabled supporters, and to avoid potentially costly legal action further down the line.
Nice if unconvincing attempt to wriggle, Geoffrey. As I suspect you well know 215 is a time as surely was obvious to all from the context. Do stop trying so hard to be clever. it just makes you look a bit of a dick.
I think your fears of expensive legal action is misplaced, Marginalista. there is no obligation to provide free parking to blue badge holders. The club could very well argue (I suspect accurately|) that this plan is an attempt to remove economic advantages from those with the right but not need to park in the limited spaces and hence to encourage appropriate need.
However well trained, it would be an impossible job, and no doubt one that resulted in regular conflict, to ask anyone to make an instant assessment on whether an individual had such severe needs that he had to park in a free space or whether actually he could park elsewhere and walk.
The playground risks derailing this important discussion.
I think the club have quite simply got this wrong. It is not down to them to police who uses blue badges incorrectly by confronting people or setting up a payment system to discrimate against those that genuinely need to access to parking close to the ground.
What is more interesting is that a week on the club or Trust has not made any comment. Maybe tomorrow's BFP will contain something. As it stands it is a PR mistake and runs the risk of becoming a chance to see how stuborn the club are.
One would hope that the BFP would have already approached Mr Howard for his comments, but I am probably being a bit optimistic!
@DevC Sorry for not making what I suggested clearer, it would be to make sure the person was who the named person on the badge was (by means of driving licence or other ID), rather than Gareth from The Office sticking needles into peoples' legs or asking them to walk a mile. The antics of Atos in declaring disabled people as 'fit for work' when clearly they are not should be proof enough that such snap judgements are morally indefensible.
As for the attempt to disincentivise people with the right but not need to park, then putting prices up is a means to this end, though when it discriminates against those who have no means of getting to the ground but to park right outside then it surely puts the club on course for a potential breach of the Equality Act 2010.
You are right that the club has no obligation to provide bays marked as 'disabled', though the provision of these is the least the club can do to make itself more welcoming to disabled supporters.
I haven't studied it particularly, but there do seem to be a reasonable amount of disabled car parking bays at AP for the amount of fans attending games, and it really wouldn't surprise me if people were using their blue badged cars to go to the football without the disabled persons attending themselves, the club must know how many disabled tickets they sell and I'm guessing that the numbers don't match up, so this is to stop "abled bodied" people in blue badged cars using up disabled bays, I'd say it's more important to guarantee spaces albeit at a cost than to make spaces free at a risk of genuinely disabled people not being able to park...
@micra Regarding your scheme, you seem to be suggesting that blue badge holders have to be STH in order to secure a parking space. Why? (Or is it a fiendish way to try to sell more STs?) As for your experience of not being able to park in the lower car park because it was full and you were with an 'honoured guest' (whatever that means), what has that to do with this discussion? My advice is next time we have a big cup game get ther earlier.
@Doob. I think the point @micra is making here is that he had paid IN ADVANCE for a parking space. Your advice to get there earlier ignores the fact that the club should not be taking money in advance for spaces that have been occupied by someone else. The club by taking the payment entered into a binding contract with micra and as far as I am aware there was no condition in that contract that the space had to be occupied by a set time. It is the same principle as having a season ticket under which you are entitled to come into the ground at any time after the gates are opened even during the game.
I'll ignore the startling hypocrisy of Geoffrey above.
The club is not discriminating against anyone on price - if the BFP story is true (as yet unconfirmed) it is simply to remove discrimination in favour of the blue badge holders by making them pay the same as everyone else. Whether there is moral argument for price discrimination in favour of disabled (or elderly for that matter) is a separate discussion.
In this case, as I said early you have to look at the clubs motivations. It is extremely unlikely that the club is not aware of its responsibilities under the Equality Act of 2010, so I think we can ignore that objection. It is extremely unlikely that the club is taking this action as a money making exercise - the sums involved are not worth the hassle,
So there has to be another reason.
IF there was a limited number of spaces available for disabled parking and this number could not be increased and these spaces regularly fill, then surely everyone would wish all reasonable attempts be made to ensure these spaces were used by those who need them most.
By removing the incentive for those holding a blue badge who don't really need to park that close to the ground to do so thereby saving themselves money, it is a reasonable hope that the club can go some way to ensure that the spaces it has got are used as well as possible. That seems reasonable to me.
As "username" says above, I would rather people who genuinely need the spaces get to use them but have to pay £5 than those people being unable to use them at all.
Thanks @mooneyman. Nice to know that someone read and understood my post and its relevance (as opposed to giving it a quick glance). I did think myself that I might have overstepped the mark by recounting the tale of the Villa parking fiasco but it seemed relevant to me as the situation was frustrating and embarrassing particularly as my guest was a highly respected friend who felt honoured to be invited to "the big match" as my guest. If @Doob is unable to relate to this, that's his problem and I don't need his advice on when to get to the ground. After nearly 50 years as a season ticket holder I think I know. I also made it clear that it was the upper tier that I paid £8 for on 14 December - weeks before the match.
You argument that removing the incentive for those holding a blue badge to park there to save money isn't really logical. I would suggest that those people abusing the blue badge park there for convenience, rather than with the principal object of saving money.
Hopefully some of the people running the club will have a more sensible and caring attitude to the disadvantaged sections of the community than yourself Dev.
Re your first paragraph, Mr Mooney, I suspect you are partially right and the solution partially effective. If no more spaces can be made available, hard to see other steps that can be put in place to ensure optimum utilisation of the spaces available for the maximum benefit of the disabled community.
i rather like the idea above to create a drop off zone such that some disabled supporters can be dropped off.
What are your "sensible and caring" suggestions to how to achieve what we both wish, those disabled supporters who really need close parking to the ground get it. The easy answer is create more spaces, this will have occurred to the club, so maybe think of some alternatives if that can’t be done.
Why not request that disabled people register access to the spaces? I'm sure they will be supportive of such a move if the club thinks other people are using blue badges when they are not disabled.
Then have a steward monitor access to the bays before match day, only allowing people who have registered their name/car to park in them?
Seems fairer than charging for the spaces.
That's a good suggestion @bill_stickers. In my experience most disabled people are used to having to make arrangements re travel and transport in advance of the day itself.
This whole thing really isn't rocket science.
Here are some FACTS:
1) Not all of the (several hundred) lower car park spaces are taken up by players, officials and staff.
2) It is possible to BUY a season pass for the lower car park.
3) It is coming towards the end of the season.
Solution:
Take 20 lower car park spaces off sale for next season. The 20 which are closest to the most appropriate entrance to the stadium. Add these to the existing (10-20?) spaces and suddenly we have more than enough ring fenced for those who need them. Make sure everyone using one of the spaces is displaying a blue badge.
@bill_stickers and@AttitudeEra -You are very much in tune with my suggestions above but simply displaying a blue badge is not enough. Using friends/relatives badges is not uncommon apparently.
@micra agree with your sentiments but with 30 spots now available under my proposed scheme does it really matter if 3-4 are used 'fraudulently'?
So when this issue came up and was debated on the FB page months ago, without doing a Richie, one of the trust type people ( I do forget the name) PMd me and said they had to bring this fee/registration in to stop the people who are illegitimately using the spaces.
Clearly the big problem is that legitimate blue badge users are now forced to stump up a fiver a game. One such guy on the FB group very reasonably said that his income is absolutely miniscule, so such a charge threatened him coming any more.
I suppose the one positive of this move is that in registering and paying, you are likely to bin the fakers, who would be no better off parking there now, then just in the regular parking. But clearly it affects the legitimate users, some of whom may ruin them coming any more.
I suppose it depends how big a problem this misuse is, and how many justified blue badgers have found they cannot get a space...
I am not convinced that you will as you say "bin the fakers" Mr Malone. Ok they will have to pay now, but what is their alternative, either get here earlier and walk a fair way or pay in one of the charity areas.
If they can afford the charge then surely they will continue to use the disabled spaces for convenience value?
A number of things about this now not making sense
1) The story only appeared in the BFP a few days ago (on Apr 1st - co-incidence?) . How could the facebookers have ben talking about it months ago.
2) A week on this doesn't seem to have been announced anywhere officially?
3) Apparently approx. 50 blue badges are issued per 1000 people. On that basis if same proportion applied to WWFC crowd you would need approximately 200 disabled parking spaces to accommodate demand.
4) The facebook disabled person who wouldn't be able to come any more. Well surely that cant be typical. Most (not all admittedly) blue badge holders who needed a space right by the stadium would surely be likely to travel with at least one family/friend. So £5 for parking means £2.50 each. If their income is "miniscule" can they really afford £20 or so for match access. If they can afford £20 can it be that many cannot afford £22.50. Surely this must be a tiny number.
5) Fortunately neither I nor any of my family are disabled, so its hard to put myself in the shoes of those who are. Surely the current situation must be incredibly unsatisfactory - 10 spaces first come first served. If you are the 11th and cannot park but cannot walk from alternative parking, you are currently royally b*ggered. Surely a system of paying £5 PER CAR but knowing you have a space is better than a free for all
with presumably a pretty high chance that when you get to the ground, you cant park so cant go.
Not sure this is now making a lot of sense.
Surely all that needs to be done is for someone to look and see if the name on the badge matches the name of someone in the vehicle? It really can't be that hard, since the stewards physically let each car into the lower car park one at a time, based on whether they have a pass to be there or not.
They need go no further, that is not their job. Whether the person in the vehicle can or can't walk freely, see clearly, hear well, or whether the person has any sign whatsoever of having a disability is none of their business. Just whether or not one of the people in the vehicle is named on the blue badge.
@mooneyman , I suppose it depends how early the top tier sells out? Does it sell out every game, or just a couple of games a season? If it doesn't sell out very often, the risk of abusing the space doesn't warrant much benefit, to gain about 200metres territory.
Unless they let you out much earlier in the lower tier than from the top tier?
Having used the bus, that used to have priority leave status, but now seems to go after almost every car has left, I wonder if there is priority access lower tier?
@AttitudeEra , nice idea in theory, but as per the message from the trust guy, interrogating people about disabled badges is a very emotive issue! I'm sure someone asked at the time why they didn't patrol the current area!
Imagine if they charge for parking, and insist on ID checks! My word that'd go down well!
@AttitudeEra - Weirdly, you cannot look through the glass and match the person to the badge.
The blue badge is two sided. One has a picture and a little basic information. The other has the date that it stops being valid. The date side is the only legal side to display the blue badge. Therefore it is impossible to simply match the picture to the person at a glance. You have to ask to examine the badge.
@DevC You would be surprised how many disabled or carers will use their last £20 to get to the football. In many cases it is the only time that they get to see people outside their immediate family/group/carers.
@DevC , I can answer for certain on your point 1, and without doing what others accuseyou of doing quite regularly, namely making "assumptions", can I make the assumption that you are either not on the Wycombe Wanderers FB group, or don't read it very often?
I had a look back, and here's the original first message in a thread that whipped up 47 messages...
so it was "Known" we intended to do this at least 3 1/2months back.
Dave Gardner
16 December 2015
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Do you think it is right to charge for disabled parking in the club car park?
I know the club needs all the money it can get. And I guess I will be on my own on this. But Disability isn't a life style choice.