Inexcusable! Parking firm’s van caught in disabled bay outside spinal injuries centre

A parking firm has apologised after one of its vehicles was caught in a disabled bay outside the spinal injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
A UKPC vehicle parked in a disabled bay outside Stoke Mandeville National Spinal Injuries CentreA UKPC vehicle parked in a disabled bay outside Stoke Mandeville National Spinal Injuries Centre
A UKPC vehicle parked in a disabled bay outside Stoke Mandeville National Spinal Injuries Centre

The indiscretion by a UKPC employee was spotted by disabled hospital worker Andy Hadcroft on Friday – and he said it seems like there is one rule for the enforcers and another for everyone else.

Mr Hadcroft took this picture of the maintenance van blocking the space, which has extra room around the sides to accommodate people with restricted mobility.

Anyone parking in a disabled bay needs to display a blue badge, for which they must provide proof of their condition to acquire from the council.

Mr Hadcroft said: “This is just ridiculous; they go round slapping parking tickets on people’s vehicles for what may seem like no reason whatsoever, but when it comes to their own vans they just don’t seem to give a monkeys.

“UK Parking Control needs to come into the hospital to understand what it is like; people in wheelchairs go through enough as it is without these people making it worse – this isn’t a problem with the hospital, it is UK Parking Control.”

Mr Hadcroft, who works at the hospital as a wheelchair technician, said: “The fact that this person felt that they could just drive up and park where they wanted is, I think, very arrogant. They should have been trained to know that this is not acceptable – if someone else did that UK Parking Control would give them a ticket!”

The Bucks Herald contacted UK Parking Control, which said that the breach was committed by a newly-appointed member of staff.

A spokesman said: “Having carried out an investigation, we can confirm that it was a new member of our maintenance team.

“This type of behaviour is, however, inexcusable as all our staff are stringently trained to deliver a high-quality service.

“This matter has been passed to our HR department and the appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against the employee involved.”