Hartlepool’s road safety crews ‘filled’ disabled spaces

An accessibility campaigner has criticized emergency services for taking “all” of the disabled parking spaces outside a shopping center for a road safety event.

Cleveland Police organized the event at Teesbay Retail Park in Hartlepool on Thursday, in partnership with Cleveland Fire Brigade and National Highways.

Tracie Bestford said there are plenty of other “normal” spaces available and that “disabled spaces are there for a reason.”

The force said it had been allocated a number of disabled spaces and would take concerns into account.

Ms Bestford, from Hartlepool’s Community Led Inclusion Partnership (Clip), said road safety events were “fantastic and much needed” but she was “disappointed to see an event at Teesbay Retail Park taking up the entire disabled parking spaces”.

“To us, this just shows that people with disabilities are just not being taken into account.”

She said many people with disabilities cannot walk far and therefore need better access to shops.

People with mobility aids and wheelchairs also need enough space to get out of their vehicles, she added.

Ms Bestford, head of community development at Clip, offered to work with emergency services on future events.

A spokesperson for the Cleveland Police Department said it would “find alternative spaces in the future.”

“We recognize that the spaces we were allocated were part of the disabled parking spaces and understand that this has caused some concern.”

Police added that the area had been chosen to minimize the risk to pedestrians.