>Cerys Gemma, who lives in Cardiff Bay, said the space allocated to her flat is inaccessible for her.
>Instead, she has been using one of the parking spaces reserved for visitors with disabilities.
>New Generation Parking Management, which manages the bays said the spaces have to be kept free for disabled visitors, not residents.
>34-year-old Ms Gemma, said she cannot use the space allocated to her waterside flat in Prospect Place.
>She explained that there is a pillar on one side, and another car parking space close on the other side.
>Ms Gemma said she had been in contact with the property management and parking companies, trying to explain why she needed to use a wheelchair accessible space.
>”This has plagued me for two years and I just can’t go on like this.
>”I’m at breaking point and I’ve had conversations with people, and I’ve said this is the end, because I can’t do this anymore – something has to change.
>”I’m not willing to be pushed out of my home because I’m in a wheelchair,” she said.
>Ms Gemma has now been ordered to pay the fines by the County Court.
>Disability rights lawyer Chris Fry, from legal firm Scott Montcrieff & Associates said under the Equalities Act there is an obligation to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act.
>”The reality is that if the space allocated to her is inaccessible to her because of her disability, then they’re under obligation to make a reasonable adjustment, to maybe move that space or change it to a closer spot to the front door.
>”If they don’t, they’re in breach of the Equality Act.”
>Mr Fry said a breach of the act could result in a company having to pay compensation for “impact of the injury to feelings that the tenant has faced”, and that could mean fines of more than £1,000.
>New Generation Parking Mangement, which manages the bays for the property management firm Ringley Group said: “We want to make clear, if we allow one resident to utilise a disabled visitor space as their own, we would need to allow all requests from residents, which we have received over the years.
>”This would no doubt reduce the availability of disabled spaces for disabled visitors.”
>Mr Fry thinks the firm may have misunderstood the Equality Act.
>”That sounds like a typical misinterpretation of what equality means, it doesn’t mean applying the same policy to everybody – equality means providing the same opportunity for outcomes.
>”There is no disadvantage to them changing their policy, and prioritising, in fact legally, prioritising disabled people above other people is legal.
>”It is within their gift to cancel those fines, that should be the first step they should take in terms of trying to rebuild the relationship,” he said.
If you see the pic of her allocated spot it’s scandalous.
Fuck property agencies, fuck landlords, fuck parking companies. Having somewhere affordable and reasonable to live should be treated as a human right.
What a scummy company. So many people absolutely hate having to make any kind of minor adjustments to help other people when others go out of their way. It’s bizarre.
[deleted]
It sounds like they’re admitting they’ve recieved multiple requests for accessible parking from residents over the years. Maybe…provide actual accessible parking for residents, then?
Private parking companies are the worst.
You’d hope that one of the other residents would just offer to swap spaces and save all this.
Not that they should have to but that seems like the simplest solution right now.
This is so frustrating. Good on her for going to the press.
It’s appalling if the county court has taken the side of this rip-off parking company in this case.
I wonder if she mounted any sort of defence, and whether she just ignored letters and this is a default judgement? It isn’t really a fine as such, it’s excess parking fees they are allowed to impose.
Context aside, does anyone else think the idea of fines is stupid? It disproportionately affects low income people while being just a mild inconvenience for the rich. Fines should scale with income / wealth.
Some more good PR for private parking companies. It would be a simple solution for anyone with a shred of decency and common sense, yet they have somehow managed to balls it up significantly. The fact that the courts have upheld the fines is even worse though. How could a judge think they should be upheld?
She should just refuse to pay. What are they going to do, break her legs?
> New Generation Parking Mangement, which manages the bays for the property management firm Ringley Group said: “We want to make clear, if we allow one resident to utilise a disabled visitor space as their own, we would need to allow all requests from residents, which we have received over the years.
Yes. No shit. Have you _not_ been doing this? For years disabled residents who _actually live_ in the block have been asking to use the disabled parking spaces and you’ve said no, they are only for visitors? Do you have any common sense?
I saw the article and thought “any reasonable human with a pair of eyes can see this is a problem”, sadly these people/companies aren’t always reasonable
Does however remind me of a job I worked on a few years back – 130 flats across two blocks in West London. It had an undercroft parking with 100ish spaces. Council defined that a percentage of those had to be disabled, which is absolutely fine. These bays, as typical, had the 1.2m access zone to the side…
What they didn’t account for was the number of spaces that were planted right next to columns like that. In fact one had a column on opposing corners, so whether you drove in or reversed, there’d be a column at your drivers door. It would be a nightmare for any able bodied driver, let alone anyone else.
I raised it at the design stage, but council were happy to sign it off, so we cracked on
“We want to make clear, if we allow one resident to utilise a disabled visitor space as their own, we would need to allow all requests from residents, which we have received over the years”
Er, no. Not how it works. Someone doesn’t understand the Equality Act. Their defence is basically an outright admission of both direct and indirect discrimination because they’ve admitted they’ve implemented a blanket policy to all residents which clearly puts disabled residents at a significant disadvantage, and then further refused to implement a reasonable adjustment for the disabled woman in question.
Good luck with that in court 👍
Scummy fucking parking companies.
Edit: just realised she’s been ordered to pay the fines by the county court. What the fuck?! She needs to challenge that and take it higher if need be. This is a clear case of discrimination.
Surely the parking company is screwed here. Are they offering any solution at all? It seems like they’re not in which case they’re essentially saying ‘if you’re disabled you have to move out or give up your car’?
That’s fucked.
If your job is managing car parks then that’s your fault, no need to go on power trips with people to make yourself feel better about your insignificant position.
omfg this happened to my mum:
Disabled and has one leg and also owns the Blue Badge that you display on a dashboard. The CCTV recorded her car entering a Disabled Only car park without the Blue Badge. When she parked the Blue Badge got put on the dashboard. She didnt get fined for parking there but she got fined for staying there too long (at a hospital appointment). The sign says that Disabled Bays were unlimited in that car park and normal spaces were max 2 hours. We went back to prove it and they painted over the wheelchair sign on just the bay we parked in and placed black electrical tape over the part of the sign that states Disabled bays were unlimited.
A quick email to ITV news meant that they didnt fine her 🙂
Did she have the blue disabled badge displayed?
How dare she.
Beck in 2013, Gideon, sorry, George Osborne’s Land Rover was parked in a disabled space and fuck all was done about it.
UK in a nutshell
I had my car towed and was fined £221 for not having tax on my zero tax car 🤷♂️
I’m afraid that rules is rules luv.
I don’t understand how she lost in court, surely she has a reasonable defence that the flat hasn’t provided her with an actual disabled parking space that she can access?
“New Generation Parking Management, which manages the bays said the spaces have to be kept free for disabled visitors, not residents.”
So where do disabled residents go?
Counter argument, surely she should have checked to ensure that the allocated car parking space would have been suitable before taking the apartment?
If she’d of rented a house with a drive way with the same limitation, then wouldn’t that of been her own fault? The point is here that is then using up space allocated for disabled guests, where are they then supposed to park?
There’s no way she should have been fined.
To me it looks like the freeholder and management company have been avoiding sorting this issue because it’s going to cost them money.
As a British person can we delete the UK and reroll for better stats?
This actually seems fine to me.
​
If you get past the knee jerk reaction of a disabled person being fined for parking in a disabled spot: She has a parking space allocated to her as part of her tennancy which she is using as she has told her freind to park there.
If she needs a disabled spot then it should be up to the council to set her up with one. Instead she has apparently parked in a private spot for 2 whole years but somehow only gotten a fine of £1,000.
She deserves a space she can use, facilitated by the council if need be and she deserves a space in the private parking which is part of her lease. She doesn’t deserve 2 spaces in private parking.
People seem to be overlooking this.
“The lady in question has one car parking space that comes with a relative’s apartment, but we understand from NGP that use of the parking space that comes with the apartment is currently being used by a friend,” it said in a statement.
“This means that she has been attempting on a continuous basis to park an additional car on-site in a visitor space, despite already having been allocated one resident’s car parking space.
“Residents’ car parking spaces form part of the leasehold agreement and are not allocated by Ringley.”
If she wants a disabled space, the friend has to give up the parking spot which can then be swapped for an appropriate one. She can’t just take over a second spot without payment.
I don’t understand how a £1000 fine for parking is proportionate under any circumstance.
Maybe if you blocked the ambulance bay at an A&E? But that’s about it.
I lived in the same area and there are incessant parking tickets given out including to people parked legally on the street.
They put tickets on everyone’s cars, and hope that you just pay. Some even went to court and they pull out last minute.
Disgusting and should be made illegal. I’m not surprised they’ve treated this lady so badly at all.
32 comments
From the piece;
>Cerys Gemma, who lives in Cardiff Bay, said the space allocated to her flat is inaccessible for her.
>Instead, she has been using one of the parking spaces reserved for visitors with disabilities.
>New Generation Parking Management, which manages the bays said the spaces have to be kept free for disabled visitors, not residents.
>34-year-old Ms Gemma, said she cannot use the space allocated to her waterside flat in Prospect Place.
>She explained that there is a pillar on one side, and another car parking space close on the other side.
>Ms Gemma said she had been in contact with the property management and parking companies, trying to explain why she needed to use a wheelchair accessible space.
>”This has plagued me for two years and I just can’t go on like this.
>”I’m at breaking point and I’ve had conversations with people, and I’ve said this is the end, because I can’t do this anymore – something has to change.
>”I’m not willing to be pushed out of my home because I’m in a wheelchair,” she said.
>Ms Gemma has now been ordered to pay the fines by the County Court.
>Disability rights lawyer Chris Fry, from legal firm Scott Montcrieff & Associates said under the Equalities Act there is an obligation to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act.
>”The reality is that if the space allocated to her is inaccessible to her because of her disability, then they’re under obligation to make a reasonable adjustment, to maybe move that space or change it to a closer spot to the front door.
>”If they don’t, they’re in breach of the Equality Act.”
>Mr Fry said a breach of the act could result in a company having to pay compensation for “impact of the injury to feelings that the tenant has faced”, and that could mean fines of more than £1,000.
>New Generation Parking Mangement, which manages the bays for the property management firm Ringley Group said: “We want to make clear, if we allow one resident to utilise a disabled visitor space as their own, we would need to allow all requests from residents, which we have received over the years.
>”This would no doubt reduce the availability of disabled spaces for disabled visitors.”
>Mr Fry thinks the firm may have misunderstood the Equality Act.
>”That sounds like a typical misinterpretation of what equality means, it doesn’t mean applying the same policy to everybody – equality means providing the same opportunity for outcomes.
>”There is no disadvantage to them changing their policy, and prioritising, in fact legally, prioritising disabled people above other people is legal.
>”It is within their gift to cancel those fines, that should be the first step they should take in terms of trying to rebuild the relationship,” he said.
If you see the pic of her allocated spot it’s scandalous.
Fuck property agencies, fuck landlords, fuck parking companies. Having somewhere affordable and reasonable to live should be treated as a human right.
What a scummy company. So many people absolutely hate having to make any kind of minor adjustments to help other people when others go out of their way. It’s bizarre.
[deleted]
It sounds like they’re admitting they’ve recieved multiple requests for accessible parking from residents over the years. Maybe…provide actual accessible parking for residents, then?
Private parking companies are the worst.
You’d hope that one of the other residents would just offer to swap spaces and save all this.
Not that they should have to but that seems like the simplest solution right now.
This is so frustrating. Good on her for going to the press.
It’s appalling if the county court has taken the side of this rip-off parking company in this case.
I wonder if she mounted any sort of defence, and whether she just ignored letters and this is a default judgement? It isn’t really a fine as such, it’s excess parking fees they are allowed to impose.
Context aside, does anyone else think the idea of fines is stupid? It disproportionately affects low income people while being just a mild inconvenience for the rich. Fines should scale with income / wealth.
Some more good PR for private parking companies. It would be a simple solution for anyone with a shred of decency and common sense, yet they have somehow managed to balls it up significantly. The fact that the courts have upheld the fines is even worse though. How could a judge think they should be upheld?
She should just refuse to pay. What are they going to do, break her legs?
> New Generation Parking Mangement, which manages the bays for the property management firm Ringley Group said: “We want to make clear, if we allow one resident to utilise a disabled visitor space as their own, we would need to allow all requests from residents, which we have received over the years.
Yes. No shit. Have you _not_ been doing this? For years disabled residents who _actually live_ in the block have been asking to use the disabled parking spaces and you’ve said no, they are only for visitors? Do you have any common sense?
I saw the article and thought “any reasonable human with a pair of eyes can see this is a problem”, sadly these people/companies aren’t always reasonable
Does however remind me of a job I worked on a few years back – 130 flats across two blocks in West London. It had an undercroft parking with 100ish spaces. Council defined that a percentage of those had to be disabled, which is absolutely fine. These bays, as typical, had the 1.2m access zone to the side…
What they didn’t account for was the number of spaces that were planted right next to columns like that. In fact one had a column on opposing corners, so whether you drove in or reversed, there’d be a column at your drivers door. It would be a nightmare for any able bodied driver, let alone anyone else.
I raised it at the design stage, but council were happy to sign it off, so we cracked on
“We want to make clear, if we allow one resident to utilise a disabled visitor space as their own, we would need to allow all requests from residents, which we have received over the years”
Er, no. Not how it works. Someone doesn’t understand the Equality Act. Their defence is basically an outright admission of both direct and indirect discrimination because they’ve admitted they’ve implemented a blanket policy to all residents which clearly puts disabled residents at a significant disadvantage, and then further refused to implement a reasonable adjustment for the disabled woman in question.
Good luck with that in court 👍
Scummy fucking parking companies.
Edit: just realised she’s been ordered to pay the fines by the county court. What the fuck?! She needs to challenge that and take it higher if need be. This is a clear case of discrimination.
Surely the parking company is screwed here. Are they offering any solution at all? It seems like they’re not in which case they’re essentially saying ‘if you’re disabled you have to move out or give up your car’?
That’s fucked.
If your job is managing car parks then that’s your fault, no need to go on power trips with people to make yourself feel better about your insignificant position.
omfg this happened to my mum:
Disabled and has one leg and also owns the Blue Badge that you display on a dashboard. The CCTV recorded her car entering a Disabled Only car park without the Blue Badge. When she parked the Blue Badge got put on the dashboard. She didnt get fined for parking there but she got fined for staying there too long (at a hospital appointment). The sign says that Disabled Bays were unlimited in that car park and normal spaces were max 2 hours. We went back to prove it and they painted over the wheelchair sign on just the bay we parked in and placed black electrical tape over the part of the sign that states Disabled bays were unlimited.
A quick email to ITV news meant that they didnt fine her 🙂
Did she have the blue disabled badge displayed?
How dare she.
Beck in 2013, Gideon, sorry, George Osborne’s Land Rover was parked in a disabled space and fuck all was done about it.
UK in a nutshell
I had my car towed and was fined £221 for not having tax on my zero tax car 🤷♂️
I’m afraid that rules is rules luv.
I don’t understand how she lost in court, surely she has a reasonable defence that the flat hasn’t provided her with an actual disabled parking space that she can access?
“New Generation Parking Management, which manages the bays said the spaces have to be kept free for disabled visitors, not residents.”
So where do disabled residents go?
Counter argument, surely she should have checked to ensure that the allocated car parking space would have been suitable before taking the apartment?
If she’d of rented a house with a drive way with the same limitation, then wouldn’t that of been her own fault? The point is here that is then using up space allocated for disabled guests, where are they then supposed to park?
There’s no way she should have been fined.
To me it looks like the freeholder and management company have been avoiding sorting this issue because it’s going to cost them money.
As a British person can we delete the UK and reroll for better stats?
This actually seems fine to me.
​
If you get past the knee jerk reaction of a disabled person being fined for parking in a disabled spot: She has a parking space allocated to her as part of her tennancy which she is using as she has told her freind to park there.
If she needs a disabled spot then it should be up to the council to set her up with one. Instead she has apparently parked in a private spot for 2 whole years but somehow only gotten a fine of £1,000.
She deserves a space she can use, facilitated by the council if need be and she deserves a space in the private parking which is part of her lease. She doesn’t deserve 2 spaces in private parking.
People seem to be overlooking this.
“The lady in question has one car parking space that comes with a relative’s apartment, but we understand from NGP that use of the parking space that comes with the apartment is currently being used by a friend,” it said in a statement.
“This means that she has been attempting on a continuous basis to park an additional car on-site in a visitor space, despite already having been allocated one resident’s car parking space.
“Residents’ car parking spaces form part of the leasehold agreement and are not allocated by Ringley.”
If she wants a disabled space, the friend has to give up the parking spot which can then be swapped for an appropriate one. She can’t just take over a second spot without payment.
I don’t understand how a £1000 fine for parking is proportionate under any circumstance.
Maybe if you blocked the ambulance bay at an A&E? But that’s about it.
I lived in the same area and there are incessant parking tickets given out including to people parked legally on the street.
They put tickets on everyone’s cars, and hope that you just pay. Some even went to court and they pull out last minute.
Disgusting and should be made illegal. I’m not surprised they’ve treated this lady so badly at all.