Disabled driver slams motorists who park illegally in Wisbech, while police admit their priorities sometimes have to be elsewhere
Disabled driver Mo Stewart approached the Fenland Citizen to ask if she could write about her problems parking in Wisbech. Here is her story…
There are many consequences to previous governments reducing funding for local authorities, justified by the adoption of severe austerity measures.
One of those consequences directly impacting Fenland is that the limited policing in Wisbech permits drivers to disregard double yellow lines, originally introduced to prevent vehicles from parking at the side of the road at any time. However, if not enforced, this illegal parking on double yellow lines prevents disabled drivers from accessing the town.
I very rarely need to visit Wisbech and, as a disabled driver, I have always relied upon the disabled parking bays on the market square, which are conveniently opposite the Nationwide Building Society where I bank. Accessed via Hill Street, in the past I had no difficulty parking. This has now all changed.
Most recently, I was unable to park in the town due to excessive illegal roadside parking, which filled Hill Street and both sides of the road in the town. The designated disabled parking bays were full, so I was obliged to drive out of Wisbech and to re-enter via Hill Street no less than three times until a roadside parking space became available. This is totally unacceptable.
Despite the fact that Wisbech benefits from free car parking, with no less than three car parks only a short walk from the town centre, nevertheless, many local drivers have clearly chosen to disregard the parking limitations identified by double yellow lines.
These drivers are safe in the knowledge that without a traffic warden or designated local police officers patrolling the town on a daily basis, there is no authority to enforce the parking restrictions suggested by double yellow lines. So, they are simply disregarded, as is the chaos caused to those in greatest need by these selfish drivers.
For reasons that escape me, parking enforcement remains with the police in Fenland. It is the only place in Cambridgeshire where the police still have this responsibility but, with very limited resources due to budget restrictions, the Wisbech Neighbourhood Policing Team advise that their time and resources need to give priority to more serious crimes such as child criminal exploitation and domestic violence.
Few would challenge these priorities, which strongly suggests that Fenland District Council should no longer require the police to enforce parking restrictions and should employ designated staff to remove what is an identified growing problem.
All the police team can do is to allocate time once every quarter to issue parking tickets for all cars illegally parked in the town. This usually reduces the problem for a few days but, very quickly, a total disregard for the parking restrictions is once again adopted by local drivers, preventing disabled drivers access to the town.
Response from Cambridgeshire Police
We’d like to thank Ms Stewart for her views and for highlighting this issue, which has been fed back to local officers. We’ve carried out extensive patrols in the town centre in recent weeks and dealt with numerous illegal parking incidents as a result, as has been highlighted on our Policing Fenland Facebook page.
As referred to by Ms Stewart in her article, we appreciate illegal parking is an area of concern for local residents and particularly those with accessibility needs, but we must prioritise tackling the most serious offences, such as child abuse, domestic abuse, burglary, serious sexual offences and violent crime.
When demand for our services is high, we often have to make some difficult decisions on what we can and can’t respond to and although we take all reports of crime seriously, our focus must be on safeguarding the most vulnerable and bringing the most persistent offenders to justice.
