2 Wheels GOOD, Blue Badge Holders EVIL?
- By Brian Leveson
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- 01 Jan, 2023
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Is the argument for and against exemptions for disabled people in Low Traffic Neighbourhoods really a case of GOOD versus EVIL?
How on EARTH has this become a GOOD versus EVIL argument?
Many proponents of the wide area road closures know as Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are trying to turn it into a good versus evil argument. Even in our own borough here in Haringey, opponents of the road closures have been described as 'very right wing' non-Labour voters who are homophobic, Islamophobic, sexist, racist and xenophobic. (I observe not Antisemitic though ... just an interesting absence from that list in a Borough than faces an now annual Councillor related Antisemitism scandal. Well for the last 4 or 5 years anyway. But 2023 is a New Year - one day down (almost, there is still time), and no Antisemitism scandal, yet...).
What is the 'common good'?
The intentional impacts of Lower Traffic Neighbourhoods disproportionately impact on disabled people and people with long standing health issues - I fail to understand how inflicting more cost, pain and suffering on disabled people is for the common good.
- Increased travel costs for people on limited or fixed incomes in the middle of a cost of living crisis - where is the common good
- Further limiting travel options for people who were already unable to access the majority of public transport - where is the common good in that?
- Increasing journey times for people who suffer physical or psychological distress - how is that good?
- Overly burdensome exemptions policy were people have to get permission to travel for every single trip - how is that healthy for anyone?
Disabled people are not 'bad people'. Disabled people are not privileged 'haves' to have help with travel. Disabled people are not Zombies waiting for a food delivery
Blue Badges are not given out like sweets! They are applied for and awarded to people who prove that they can’t walk more than 50 metres or are registered blind (severely sight impaired) or receive a War Pensioners’ Mobility Supplement or a veteran certified as having a permanent and substantial disability that causes inability to walk or very considerable difficulty in walking or ‘planning and following journeys’ activity / unable to undertake any journey causes you overwhelming psychological distress
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/blue-badge-can-i-get-one/can-i-get-a-blue-badgeHow the HELL has is come to this ...
If you are sickened by this treatment of disabled people and think disabled people should not be prisoners in their own homes or just dislike LTNs join the protest next Saturday..
If you thought SEND was bad - the NHS is seemingly prepared to throw away money to private companies
About 3 or 4 times a year we get the euphemistic message 'Parents please note we have put a letter in your child's bag' - its a world away from how a child's death was handled in my child's first school
More of a trial by ordeal than a well organised clearly set out administrative process for moving the care of vulnerable young adults from Haringey's Children's Services to Adult Services. We have been failed at every stage of the process.
Never EVER get on the bus without a camera running if you need the priority wheelchair space
The reality of using a London Bus in the teeming rain on a Sunday afternoon is no joke when the parents of a paraplegic person in a wheelchair clash with the self-entitled buggy-pushing parents of toddlers.
At 3pm today I received some barefaced lies from Haringey Council Adult Social Care in response to a photograph I published online yesterday and the media interest it generated
Haringey SEND Transport are insisting that a 17 year old minibus with no air conditioning is a suitable vehicle to transport my paraplegic son in this heatwave. The appalling conditions inside the minibus inside the bus is something they knew about last summer, yet they have to date done nothing whatsoever provide a suitable minibus this year nor appropriately mitigate the temperatures inside the minibus.The conditions inside the minibus are so bad that they triggered multiple seizures during the heatwave as my son has epilepsy, which they SEND transport department know about and they also know that they are triggered by heat.It is not just son who is impacted: last year we know of one child who died on Haringey SEND Transport in the summer heatwave and another who had seizures.
I am simply asking a question - are we all absolutely certain that the road closure / travel restrictions (commonly know as LTNs) placed on some of the most severely disabled people who are wholly reliant on cars are absolutely necessary
Haringey's road closures exemptions policy for disabled people is not fit for purpose, unduly burdensome and intrusive - it's time to stand up against the pro-LTN lycra-clad cycling bullies
Letters from Labour Grandees and survey results from Haringey Council show people who opposed LTNs are women, elderly and disabled. Yet Peray Ahmet has described anti-LTN people as homophobic, islamophobic, sexist, racist and xenophobic.
