York Disability Rights Forum is not linked with any political party. We wanted to ensure that you, our lovely readers and members, know what the different parties think about the city centre access issue… So, in alphabetical order…
Conservative
“The Conservative Group would absolutely be prepared to reverse what we believe to be totally discriminatory and disgraceful decisions by the current administration at City of York Council on Blue Badge parking for disabled residents. We would be pleased to work with groups representing disabled people and business organizations in the city in how best to do this – and promise we would listen and act. We do support a reversal and this will be a manifesto commitment for the upcoming local elections and will work with any party with similar aims in any vote on this specific policy.”
Green Party
“The Green Group is deeply concerned about the negative impacts for some Blue Badge holders and is currently arguing for a review, in co – production with the access officer and disability groups, into whether one or more access routes into the core foot – streets could be provided once the new remotely controlled bollards are installed.”
Labour
“The York Labour group takes the safety of our residents and visitors very seriously and we share the concerns of the Police and security services. However we do not believe that the Blue Badge holders are a safety threat and, if elected in May 2023, we will put right this wrong and overturn the Blue Badge holder access ban. We applaud the work of the Reverse the Ban coalition of 27 organizations of disabled and older people who, together with York Human Rights City Network, have highlighted the harms being perpetrated on our most vulnerable citizens.”
Liberal-Democrats
“We want everyone to safely enjoy our historic and beautiful city. Strong advice was received from police and counter-terrorism experts, advising the installation of security measures at key locations in the city Centre to combat the threat of a vehicle-aided terror attack. The operation of such measures will remain under constant review. We fully recognise that this directly impacts residents with Blue Badges, so we will work to improve access across the city, including extra parking bays, dropped kerbs and improvements to our historic streets.”
Voting
In May, we’ll be voting on which party should be leading our city, so are you fully prepared? Have you registered to vote? If you’re voting in person, have you got photo id? And if not, have you registered to vote by post? You can find out more about voting in another blog post.