Disabled Living

Tag: survey

  • Baywatch month 2022: Disabled Motoring UK’s annual survey

    Baywatch month 2022: Disabled Motoring UK’s annual survey

    In this guest blog, Disabled Motoring UK is encouraging people with disabilities to fill in their annual Baywatch survey to help improve parking industry standards and stamp out disabled parking abuse. Disabled Living is proud to support Disabled Motoring UK’s campaign.

    Baywatch is here and this month Disabled Motoring UK will be asking you to fill in the Baywatch survey. Every year DMUK runs its Baywatch Campaign which researches opinions about disabled parking abuse. It’s a simple survey which doesn’t take long to fill in and provides the charity with really useful data to take to the parking industry to encourage them to do more to support disabled customers and manage their disabled parking provisions correctly. Last year DMUK received over 850 responses, breaking all records, which goes to show that many of you are still experiencing massive problems when it comes to finding suitable and properly enforced disabled parking.

    Still the most common problem for many disabled motorists is not being able to park at their desired destination. The major complaint is that the disabled bays are all occupied with cars not displaying a Blue Badge and most of the questions in the survey reflect this. However, as time moves on DMUK has noticed new parking worries around electric vehicles and charging infrastructure. So this year we have included a question on EV charging bays. (DMUK also has its dedicated EV survey still running and if you have not already done so please take the time to fill it in. More info available here.)

    When answering the questions please think about your parking experiences over the last 12 months. Have you been able to park easily at the supermarket and elsewhere? Do you think local authorities are doing enough to tackle Blue Badge misuse? These are important questions and if we have some statistical evidence it makes our case stronger when trying to get the parking industry take the management of disabled parking bays seriously.

    We will be running the Baywatch survey for the month of August which you can complete without leaving your home. The online survey which can be accessed through our website www.disabledmotoring.org/baywatch/baywatch-2022

    When the survey closes the results are calculated and published. The Baywatch campaign also aims to change public attitudes by bringing to the attention of disabled bay abusers the impact that their actions can have. We will publish the results later in the year.

    Heidi Turner, Campaigns and Communications Director at Disabled Motoring UK said: “Disabled bay abuse is still one of the main concerns expressed to us by our members and the public. Our annual Baywatch campaign is an opportunity to focus the parking industry on the problems faced by disabled motorists when parking and sends the message that these bays need to be enforced and managed correctly. We are noticing more opinions coming forward on how disabled motorists think the scheme should be enforced and we are also keen to hear these views.”

    Take action now

    As well as filling in the Baywatch survey you could also help by writing to your MP. We have a new template letter on our website available for members and public to download. This letter can be sent to your MP to ask them what is being done in your area to tackle Blue Badge parking abuse. To download the letter please visit https://www.disabledmotoring.org/campaigns/blue-badge Further information on how to contact your MP can be found by visiting https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/contact-your-mp/

    DMUK would like to thank all those who participate in this year’s Baywatch Campaign.

    Supporting organisations

    We are thrilled to have the support of so many supporting organisations.

    supporting charities - AccessAble, Phab, Independent living, Honest John, Disabled Living, heycar, Posability magazine, BPA

    Disabled Motoring UK 

    Disabled Motoring UK is the national charity which supports disabled drivers, passengers and Blue Badge holders. We work with government and businesses to improve parking, refuelling and access provision for disabled people, so that they can access the goods and services that they need. Disabled Motoring UK is not just an organisation for disabled motorists; we also campaign for and support scooter and wheelchair users, families and carers.

    The charity is a membership organisation and the charity relies on membership subscriptions to continue its work. Full members receive a monthly magazine, access to our information service and discounts on variety of goods and services.

    For more information please contact:

    Heidi Turner

    Campaigns and Communications Director

    heidi@disabledmotoring.org

    01508 489449

  • Baywatch Results Reveal Disabled Parking Abuse

    Baywatch Results Reveal Disabled Parking Abuse

    Disabled Living are pleased to support Disabled Motoring UK’s Baywatch Campaign. Read all about the latest results below.

    In August, DMUK asked the public to help us with our Baywatch Campaign by completing a survey on their parking experiences over the past 12 months. The results have now been calculated.

    DMUK would like to thank everybody who participated in this year’s Baywatch Campaign. This year we had the biggest number of responses that we have ever seen which goes to show how important the problem of disabled parking abuse remains. The total number of responses was 777. We would also like to thank all our sponsors, the British Parking Association and BBFI Public Sector Investigations, and our supporting organisations that promoted the campaign and encouraged their members/supporters to take part. Without them the campaign would not be so successful.

    Traditionally the Baywatch Campaign asks the public to survey supermarket car parks for levels of disabled parking abuse. We were unable to undertake this type of campaign in 2020 because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Instead we asked the public to complete a survey from home which asked them questions on their more general parking experiences. This allowed DMUK to expand the scope of the campaign to other parking settings.

    Findings

    Local Authorities

    One of the most alarming statistics that came from the survey results was that 95.6% of participants did not think that local authorities were doing enough to tackle Blue Badge abuse. This is a very high percentage, but not at all surprising to DMUK. Every year the ‘Blue Badge Statistics’ are released and every year the number of local authorities actually prosecuting Blue Badge fraud is disappointingly low. The Baywatch Campaign also showed that only 20.8% of Blue Badge holders had ever been asked to have their Blue Badge inspected by an official and that 96.4% of participants supported more inspections of Blue Badges.

    The disabled community has spoken, and local authorities must do more to support their parking needs. DMUK wants to see far more Blue Badge inspections and enforcement of the on-street concession.

    Supermarket Parking

    With the data gathered we cannot do our usual supermarket league table with who is performing best and worst. However, the results have shown that 53.4% of participants either find it ‘Difficult’ or ‘Very Difficult’ to find suitable disabled parking in general at supermarkets. Also 86.8% found that disabled parking bays were either ‘Often’ or ‘Very Often’ abused. (Abused is defined as vehicles parking in disabled bays not displaying a Blue Badge.)

    supermarket pie chart

    These statistics show that supermarkets are not doing enough to support their disabled customers. Disabled parking is not managed properly, disabled parking bays are clearly not enforced, and abuse of the bays is rife.

    Looking specifically at enforcement DMUK asked the question: When parking at the supermarket do you ever see signs of enforcement? In response to this 55.1% of respondents said No. The next question asked was: If you have reported disabled parking abuse to a member of staff, do they take action? 86.7% of respondents answered ‘No’ to this question. This is distressing and shows that when a disabled customer asks for help their concerns are ignored by supermarket staff.

    General Findings

    The survey also asked participants about parking on their everyday journeys, not just at the supermarkets. On these types of journeys 74.8% of respondents said that finding suitable disabled parking was either ‘Difficult’ or ‘Very Difficult’.

    baywatch pie chart

    Also, generally when parking 87.7% of respondents said that they ‘Often’ or ‘Very often’ saw disabled bays being abused.

    These statistics are appalling. Being able to drive and park at their desired destination is imperative to the independence of disabled people. The figures show that disabled people are being disadvantaged and prevented from living independent lives because of the state of the nation’s disabled parking provision and enforcement. These statistics should be the wakeup call that the parking industry needs to once and for all provide adequate parking provision to disabled motorists and make sure it is enforced correctly. The level of deterrent needs to reflect the importance of keeping disabled bays free for genuine users and at present the deterrent clearly isn’t enough.

    The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic

    Earlier in the summer we started to receive anecdotal evidence that disabled bays were being removed from car parks to make room for socially distanced queuing. As lockdown restrictions eased, this became a more common problem. We posed the question in our survey: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic have you seen disabled bays being removed? Eg, for queuing. 65.8% of respondents answered ‘Yes’ to this question. Once again the needs of disabled people have been pushed to the back of the queue and equality has been forgotten.

    Graham Footer, CEO at DMUK, said: “DMUK is delighted with the level of support it has received for this year’s Baywatch campaign. However, we are very concerned about the levels of disabled parking abuse in all parking settings. The parking industry and local authorities all need to do more to support disabled people. Accessibility starts in the car park and without proper parking provision and enforcement of disabled parking, disabled people find it increasingly difficult to live independent lives. DMUK demands that this issue is taken seriously”

    Baywatch Appeal

    To help DMUK to continue campaigning on the issue of disabled parking abuse we have a fundraising initiative called the ‘Baywatch Appeal’. This is a fundraising appeal which will help the charity raise vital funds to keep advocating the need for proper management of disabled parking bays. The charity encourages all supporters of the Baywatch campaign to donate if they are able. Please visit https://www.disabledmotoring.org/donate

Disabled Living