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Surely the Trust Board read this message board. If so please clarify the position re disabled...

...parking charges asap

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  • Would be happy to donate money so disabled fans can have free parking at AP.

  • Me too. I'd sponsor a space or two.

  • This is a great idea provided that the free sponsored spaces go to those with serious mobility problems and not to blue badge holders carte blanche.

  • Can't work out if that's outrage or irony @mooneyman.

  • Do an EU/Turkey type deal guys. Commit to £10 per month for the Share Scheme - less than a pint a week - on the understanding that genuine disabled badge holders will not be charged. (Yes, of course my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek.)

  • Alan Cecil is a fairly regular contributor to this forum.

  • @Watford_Blue - there is a delightful (if disturbing) ambiguity about your post. I first read it as a plea from you for the swift implementation of charges but have just realised that your "plea" is simply a continuation of your headline!!

  • The silence from the club and trust on this is getting deafening.

  • It might be worthwhile remembering that a lot of the trust board have work/personal commitments outside of the club. They do this as volunteers.

    You wouldn't necessarily expect the same response time as if you contacted the customer services department/PR department of a business.

    Have you contacted the club directly rather than waiting for someone to spot it on here?

  • OK - you heard it first here. A meeting is due to be held next week to discuss this matter.

  • Why exactly does anyone need a meeting to discuss this ?

    An absolutely dreadful decision and certainly not the actions of a Supporter owned Football Club.

    Come on WWFC and do the right thing.

  • Precisely. It's a no brainer

  • I think you need to wait to hear the thinking behind the proposal and what the club are trying to achieve. Who knows?!

  • @micra any news on that meeting?

  • Crikey - that was so long ago that I'd forgotten all about it! I've heard nothing I'm afraid.

  • Can someone from the Club advise if this has been resolved yet ?

  • This is a football club matter which is under consideration again and a statement will be issued in due course to clarify the situation in time for the new season. I understand there will be some disabled parking provided but with monitoring of the use (and alleged abuse) of the blue badge system.

  • Would those disabled spaces be free of charge?

  • I don't really think it should be the football club's role to assess whether someone is worthy of a disabled badge or not.

    I think if someone's got a blue badge then they should be allowed to park at the stadium free of charge no questions asked. If people abuse that then it's between them and their conscience but at least we would avoid the appalling situation of genuinely disabled fans feeling stigmatised and under suspicion

    This is a real missed beat in my opinion

  • @eric_plant If every week there are not enough disabled spaces for genuine blue badge holders, the club needs to act. It is private property so nobody else is going to do it on their behalf.

    I certainly think it was a poor decision to try and universally charge customers for the spaces. Enacting strict control over them is the correct decision.

    I don't think anyone is suggesting the club should assess whether someone is suitably disabled. The club just needs to verify that the person parking is the named owner of the blue badge they are using. A quick flash of their drivers license would suffice.

  • It could act by providing more disabled parking spaces

    If we had that many disabled supporters coming to games that we had to provide more spaces then I personally think that would be a great thing

  • Asking disabled fans to "flash their driving licences" would be absolutely appalling and shameful

  • I don't think there's anything wrong with asking people to confirm that the blue badge holder is present; in the same way as asking for student ID when buying a student ticket.

  • Perhaps that's because you've never been asked to prove you're disabled

    A blue badge should be all that's needed

  • I've been asked plenty of times to prove my identity, which is the issue here. Not proving whether one is disabled, which is what the blue badge does.

  • You'd be comfortable discriminating against certain types of disability then would you?

    Or are you genuinely saying that you ask someone in a wheelchair for proof of identity?

    Disabled people have been demonized enough by the current government. It's pretty atrocious that a football club and fellow supporters want to do the same

  • The football club believes that the blue badge spaces are being used by people who aren't entitled to use them, leading to parking issues for people who are.

    Making sure that people who use these spaces are genuine blue badge holders (not genuine people with disablities, I agree that would be terrible) is for the benefit of those who do need the spaces.

  • If I was a blue badge holder and I knew that people were pretending to be disabled to use spaces, I don't think I would have an issue with the club checking to stop such abuse.

    However, I think we need to canvass opinion from blue badge holders themselves, rather than taking offence on their behalf or assuming they are OK with an ID request.

    If someone turns up in a wheelchair common sense should prevail rather than asking them for ID.

    As I already said, I am not suggesting the club decides who is disabled and who is not. They just need to verify if they are the owner of a blue badge.

    By your logic, blue badges may as well be scrapped if one cannot check their validity.

  • I do agree that the first step should be to ask fans with disabilities their opinion.

  • Surely...surely, a blue badge holder should be able to park for free, as close to the stadium as possible. It's not the football club's responsibility to check that this right isn't being abused any more than any other business. We do seem to be overreaching a little bit.

    In the world we live in of course some people are going to try and take advantage, and while that's wrong, i'd much rather let a handful thru than lose a single legitimate badge holder.

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