Brian Roberts came to the Blackpool Disability Forum to share the numbers his neighbours had collected about the lack of disabled parking spaces in  Blackpool.

As chairman of the Brunswick Police and Community Group, he’d spent over a year trying to get answers about disabled parking in Blackpool. He’d submitted fifteen Freedom of Information requests throughout the country to compare provision across coastal towns.

Blackpool:

• 9,731 blue badges issued to Blackpool residents
• 96 council-owned, on-street disabled bays in the entire town
• Percentage of bays per disabled people: 0.98%
• Of those 96 bays, only 7 are available 24 hours a day

Brighton:

• 1,951 disabled bays
• 1,931 of those are 24-hour spaces
• Their ratio: 16%

Brian said: “Compared with other towns, it’s scandalous.”

The BBC reported the stark reality: one disabled parking space for every 113 disabled drivers in Blackpool.

Where the Disabled Bays Go After Dark

Brian revealed another shocking pattern: “Most of the disabled bays that vanish, that are not 24 hours, are converted to taxi ranks. From six o’clock at night, virtually every disabled bay goes to a taxi rank.  After 6pm in Blackpool, if you’re disabled, you don’t exist.”

Brian said. “If you want to go for a meal or a show there’s no place to park.  It’s a town that promotes itself as inclusive and diverse, but as far as people with disabilities, it’s anything but.”