Kush Kanodia is campaigning for free disabled parking and has said:
I am requesting your support for the creation of a standardised and compassionate disabled parking policy in London, England and the UK.
From the 7th of September the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea expanded free disabled parking for their hospital wards from approx. 1 to 4 hours free. Enabling street access to Chelsea Westminster, the Royal Brompton, the Royal Marsden and St Charles NHS hospitals.
I have attached RBKC’s key decision report, the RBKC policy change for Blue Badges, the updated campaign policy document & links to RBKC website, My London and the SMK awards website that details additional reasons for the policy change:
- www.rbkc.gov.uk/blue-badge
- https://www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/disabled-campaigners-bid-better-parking-18730045
- https://smk.org.uk/awards_nominations/nowheelchairtaxcampaign/
We are now requesting that the same 4 hours free disabled parking is implemented throughout your Boroughs ASAP.
Background:
London currently has 33 boroughs all with their own rules and regulations for disabled parking. This system is overly complex for disabled people to navigate, as many parking bays don’t display the borough’s disabled parking policy and websites can be inaccessible for disabled people to access. The inner London boroughs also only provide 1-hour free parking, which is insufficient time for the 1.2 million disabled people who live in London to access critical healthcare services at NHS hospitals.
The Proposal for London:
|
Inner London |
Expand 1hr to 4hrs continuous free disabled parking. For the London Boroughs that are exempt from the UK wide Blue Badge Scheme: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), City of Westminster, City of London and London Borough of Camden |
|
Outer London |
Free disabled parking for the remaining 29 London Boroughs |
Then the plan is to replicate the free disabled parking policy across all the councils in England. This proposal allows ‘churn’ in the system and maximises capacity utilisation, where there is most demand in London, matching the 4-hour A&E waiting time target for NHS Hospitals in England and the UK.
The evidence base to implement this change immediately is undeniable:
1. 2/3 people who have died from coronavirus are disabled – (Office of National Statistics):
This policy will help to reduce risk of disabled people contracting and dying for Covid19 by reducing the risk from public transport and taxis / ubers, enabling access to critical NHS health services. https://inews.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-deaths-uk-covid-19-ons-statistics-disability-figures-460326
2. Inaccessible Public Transport – Only 26% of all London Tube stations are accessible (70 / 270):
Disabled people often have no other choice but to drive to hospital due to our inaccessible public transport: https://www.transportforall.org.uk/public/ug/
3. Disability is one of the strongest predictors of being in poverty in the UK:
The Social Metrics Commission’s report confirms that disability is one of the strongest predictors of being in poverty. 50% of people in poverty live in a family where someone is disabled: https://socialmetricscommission.org.uk/measuring-poverty-2020/
Additionally, there is going to be reduced supply and increased demand for disabled parking at NHS hospitals in London due to the limited size and capacity of NHS car parks, following recent and future policy changes:
4. Expansion of Blue Badge Scheme to Hidden Disabilities – Aug 2019
5. Government to provide free car parking for NHS and social care staff – March 2020
6. Expansion of Free parking at NHS Hospitals in England – Jan 2021
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/free-hospital-parking-for-thousands-of-patients-staff-and-carers
This policy change is therefore complementary to these key Conservative government policy initiatives for disabled people from the 2019 General Elections. As you know, councils have a legal and moral duty under the Public Sector Equality Duty of the Equality Act 2010, where there is a duty to make reasonable adjustments for the protected characteristics of disabled people.
The founding principle of the NHS is also ‘free at the point of delivery,’ and this is unfortunately currently being denied to those most in need, disabled people at the time of a national pandemic.
Please act now to help safeguard disabled people’s lives by making our critical healthcare more accessible and helping to make London the most accessible city in the world!
Thank you for all your help and assistance,
Kush
You can see more detail about the work which Kush does at https://onpurpose.org/en/our-stories/kush-kanodia/
– and can contact Kush by email at kushuk@gmail.com
