Disability carparks’ misuse adds to anguish
What is the use of paying for a disability carpark when they are so seldom available to those who truly need it? No one polices them, no one is ever held to account for causing so much stress to the disabled person in that car.
However, last Tuesday, just this one time, justice came my way.
At the Kensington shopping centre where I was about to manoeuvre my car into a disabled carpark that someone had just vacated, as I gently moved forward a car shot past me from my right and into the park, leaving me shocked and very angry.
A young, able-bodied woman walked briskly into the post office without a glance at me and my beloved, very unwell niece.
Then another park came free so this time I secured it, still seething as I leapt out of the car in the pouring rain and went in to the post office to confront her.
We had had a very sad time at the cancer unit for over an hour. There she was at the counter where I approached her and said “excuse me, do you realise that you are parked in a disability carpark?” She replied that she did realise, but she wasn’t going to be long !!
Pointing out to her that that wasn’t the point, it is the frustrating difficulty about trying to actually park in one (that has been pre-paid for ) that was the problem.
I explained how we had had a long, very sad session at the cancer unit and now we were being faced with yet another frustrating situation where yet again able-bodied people have taken the carpark.
Without any apology or offer to move her car, she turned her back on me and carried on with her transaction.
Seething, I returned to my car in the pouring rain only to witness her run back to the car to fetch something she had forgotten, without a glance at us.
Then, in the pouring rain, a young man stepped out from the pavement and took a photo of her number plate.
When I asked him what he was doing, he said “she will get a ticket for this offence by the end of the week”. Hallelujah!! He was an off-duty police officer! Before I sign off I must state the disabled parking spaces at Whangārei Hospital, despite there being a great many of them, are IMPOSSIBLE to park in. I can say that with truth as I am there almost on weekly — 99 per cent of the time I never get a park. I have approached people who are then rude to me. I pick my battles because one does not know who one is dealing with.
No one cares. The one place in Whangarei where disabled people should be able to get car spaces, the PUBLIC HOSPITAL, but cannot, is a total disgrace.
Arlene Baldwin
Strength in numbers
To the business sector in our lovely city of Whangārei. Please, please put a big address number on your business so that 80-year-olds driving on their own can find you.
This will help speed up the traffic a bit, and help stop this oldie going more doolally than she already is! Thanks.
Andrea Cromwell
Whangārei