Able-bodied sneaks face more policing

Press, 13 September 1988, Page 6

Able-bodied sneaks face more policing

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DEBORAH McPHERSON

Able-bodied Christchurch drivers who sneak parks in spots reserved for drivers with disabilities will face a $4O fine if caught. The Christchurch City council was mounting a campaign against such inconsiderate drivers, said the superintendent of the council’s car-parking division, Mr Geoff Stevenson.

He said council officers would be imposing the $4O fine more regularly on drivers they found parked in the mobility parks without good reason. "The mobility parks are well signposted, but we are concerned at the increasing numbers of able-bodied drivers in the city area who keep using them,” he said. “Our officers have been told to watch out for certain city areas, particularly near office blocks.” The Christchurch District Council of Social Services chairperson, Mrs Rosemary Carr,, said the public often abused parking set aside for the disabled, particularly those in shopping malls.

“The parks are usually convenient to shops, which is appropriate for people with disabilities, but often able-bodied drivers will not heed the signs.” Sometimes disabled drivers were at fault by not adequately displaying their signs, she said. A revamped Operation Mobility (the parking concession scheme) announced by the Ministry of Transport, Mr Jeffries, last week, she hoped would improve the situation, said Mrs Carr. Under the revamped scheme, members received bright yellow plastic membership cards to replace the existing red cards. The new cards would be seen more easily. A membership fee of $ll has also been introduced for the first time to pay for the costs of the signs, brochures and application forms provided by the Crippled Children Society, which co-ordi-nates the scheme. . .

Operation Mobility was first introduced nationally in 1977 by the Crippled Children Society in co-operation with local bodies, the Ministry of Transport and the Association of Parking Enforcement Authorities.