Mobilise - Promoting mobility for disabled people

After Police in Norfolk received complaints from shoppers in Great Yarmouth about scooter users “driving too fast” and “bumping into market stalls” they decided to set up their own scheme to try and reduce the number of accidents. Mobilise was invited to try out this nationally acclaimed Safe Scoot Scheme so we sent Jim Rawlings along to be put through his paces.

The Safe Scoot Scheme was devised by Norfolk Constabulary in partnership with Halfords because they wanted to improve the safety of mobility scooter use. Safe Scoot is a best practice guide to running awareness courses, complete with a short film starring actress Sheila Reid. At mobility scooter awareness courses users are taught basic manoeuvres such as starting off, reversing, negotiating shopping aisles and are made aware of speed limits. Anne Campbell, Norfolk Constabulary spokesperson said “There are around 330,000 users in the UK for whom scooters provide a lifeline to the outside world giving them their freedom and independence. With models ranging from the 4mph class 2 up to the 8mph class 3, these machines can be difficult to manoeuvre and so accidents do happen.” 

Continue reading »

Scottish ministers are considering changing the rules which allow Blue Badge holders to park on single and double yellow lines.

Councils across Scotland have told the Scottish Executive that soaring numbers of Blue Badge holders and increasing congestion mean the current rule which allows holders to park on yellow lines is making some roads unsafe.

Local authority bosses want ministers to ban badge holders from parking on double yellow lines and restrict access to single yellow lines to three hours.

Motorists who break the new rules would face fines of up to £100. 

There are now 270,000 blue badge holders in Scotland – nearly twice as many as a decade ago.

But there is growing public unrest over the level of Blue Badge fraud.

In Edinburgh alone it is estimated as many as 70 per cent of the 18,000 blue badges currently in circulation are being misused in some way.

In response, the Executive wants to beef up fines for misuse of the badges from £1,000 to £2,500, as well as introduce independent medical tests to verify disability claims.

The move to change the yellow line rules was  backed by The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, which claims the ‘no parking on double yellows’ rule should apply to all road users.

But campaigners for the elderly and disabled warned the plans could unfairly hit genuine Blue Badge holders. Mobilise will be strongly opposing this proposal.

A public consultation on the Executive’s plan will run until October.  if you would like to respond to the consultation CLICK HERE

The ‘Transport for Disabled People: Past, Present & Future’ exhibition at the Coventry Transport Museum has now closed. During the three months that the exhibition ran it attracted visitors from as far away as Scotland, Spain, France, Poland and the USA. The exhibition was run in conjunction with Mobilise and Mobilise Trustee J. Grant Cobb collected the following plaudits from many of the people who came to see the adapted vehicles on display:

“Excellent exhibition, well put together”

“I enjoyed seeing how disabled people used to be challenged to get about. Thank goodness for the progress we are now enjoying!”

“Beautifully laid out exhibition – spacious and thought-provoking.”

For more information on the show see our previous news item

Fuel Costs

Anyone who pays to put fuel in a vehicle can’t help but have noticed how fuel prices have rocketed in the last few months. For disabled people who are totally reliant on their vehicles to get around paying these prices is unavoidable although some members have written to me saying that they are stru

ggling to pay their fuel costs. One such letter came from Mr D R Rogers from Rainham who wrote saying;

Is this progress? I suffered a disability which has prevented me from working for the last 23 years. I am almost solely dependent on benefits. Some years back people with mobility problems were allocated a blue three wheel invalid carriage, with only one seat and were unable to carry their family. Continue reading »

Disability campaigner Matt Smith has won a battle against the City of Lincoln Council to have parking charges for disabled people reviewed. In a decision that could have repercussions across the country, City of Lincoln has agreed to reassess parking tariffs for Blue Badge holders. The change of heart came after the threat of being taken to a Judicial Review by Mr Smith who claims the charges are unlawful. Charges for Blue Badge holders were introduced in April last year and prompted Mr Smith to gather a case for a Judicial Review. Continue reading »

Taking place at ExCeL London on September 29^th & 30^th, Naidex South will have a dedicated Car Zone, with many of the UK’s leading manufacturers of wheelchair accessible vehicles including Aspect Conversions, Brotherwood, Brook Miller, Lewis Reed and Sirus Automotive exhibiting their latest vehicles.

The Car Zone will provide visitors with a fantastic opportunity to talk to different manufacturers and compare products in one convenient location.  Mobilise will also have a stand within the Car Zone so if you have any questions about the Blue Badge scheme, parking, refuelling or any of our campaigns, why not come and talk to us there?

Event Director Liz Virgo commented: “We are delighted that so many of the UK’s leading vehicle converters and related organisations will be at Naidex South.  We hope to replicate the tremendous success of the Car Zone at Naidex in April and believe that disabled drivers based in London and the South East will have no better opportunity to meet with so many leading companies under one roof”. Continue reading »

Alan Simpson, a postgraduate student from the University of Aberdeen, is currently undertaking research for his dissertation regarding the construction of motorway rest areas.

Motorway Rest Areas were created by new legislation in 2008, covering England and Wales, and so far only one exists in the UK. However, mainland Europe has had them for years. They are smaller than Motorway Service Areas and are not legally obliged to provide as many facilities.

Alan is looking to find out if these smaller sites have a future in the UK and whether or not motorists actually see a demand for what they offer and would use them, and has set up an online questionnaire for motorists to complete. This should take around ten minutes.

As an added incentive, everyone who completes the survey will be entered into a prize draw to win £25 worth of Marks and Spencer vouchers. The winner will be picked at random in September 2010. Your name and email will only be utilised by Alan for this purpose and will not be passed to any third parties.

Click here to fill out the online survey.

Mobilise was saddened to hear that a disabled man in the Portsmouth area has been caught and cautioned by police after forging copies of his own Blue Badge. Continue reading »

During 2009, Motability reviewed the provision of powered wheelchairs and scooters on the Motability Scheme.  Following that review, Motability concluded that a single Scheme, offering a full range of mobility solutions, from scooters through to powered wheelchairs, cars, adaptations and wheelchair accessible vehicles, is the best option forward to provide more value and excellent service to its customers.  This will enable the Scheme to have a more co-ordinated approach to the full range of mobility solutions, so that a customer could, for example, move easily from having a car to having a powered wheelchair or scooter if their needs or circumstances changed.  In the longer-term, the Scheme will also look at ways to provide customers with a combined solution e.g. a car and scooter to fully meet the customer’s mobility needs. Continue reading »

Mobilise invites you to the Welsh regional forum to be held on Saturday 31st July 2010 at 11am at:

Future Inn

Hemingway Road

Cardiff Bay

CF10 4AU

All Mobilise members both full and associate are warmly invited to attend the regional forum to be held on July 31st. This meeting will give members the opportunity to meet the new CEO Graham Footer and some of the other Mobilise staff and trustees.

In the morning the floor will be open for members to share their views and experiences on all aspects of their mobility. We are particularly interested to hear your thoughts on our current campaigns and we would also like to know if you think there is an issue we should be campaigning on. The Mobilise magazine and website have undergone many changes in the last year and we would like to hear if there are other changes that you would like to see.

In the afternoon we have invited a representative from the British Parking Association to give a presentation and answer some of your questions.

A light lunch will be provided.

To reserve your place or for more information please contact Nicola Weale on 01508 489 449 or click on the ‘Contact Us’ button in the menu bar above to send us a message. Please remember to include your email address or telephone number if you would like us to respond using these methods.