Letter to Surrey Advertiser dated 15th September 2017
In your front page report last week about the return of parking fees for the holders of blue badges David Beaman, Chair of South West Surrey Disabled Alliance Network, said that he was, “disappointed but not surprised” that Waverley Borough Council’s Executive Committee decided on 5th September after no debate to approve the introduction of parking charges for blue badge holders.
I am also disappointed, maybe not surprised but certainly sad that we have come to this, or more exactly that this is what a council dominated by one party can do in our name.
Waverley is following the lead of our national government. A government which is failing in its duties to the disabled, in education, work and housing, in health, transport and social security. One million disabled people now have to live without the social care they need to wash, cook, or leave the house. Last week the UN described the treatment of disabled people in this country as a “human catastrophe”.
There is a public outcry and I add my voice. We must speak out to those we have elected “to do unto others as they would have done unto themselves”. Especially, in these times of inequality, of the widening gap between the richest and the poorest, of food banks, pensioner poverty, student debt, of zero hours contracts, we must heed the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members”.
If this is the true measure of our Waverley Borough Councillors, would you give these elected representatives your vote next time?