Disability rights campaigners have vowed to keep fighting until York’s ban on blue badge holders parking in parts of the city centre is scrapped.
Nearly 100 people gathered outside the Mansion House ahead of Thursday’s full council meeting to call on councillors to ‘reverse the ban’.
More than 2,700 handwritten postcards, collected by a coalition of 27 community groups, were handed to council leader Keith Aspden by Labour councillors, who are opposed to the move.
Cllr Rachel Melly, Labour, told the meeting that disabled people needed access to the city centre “to access central services, to shop, to socialise, to work – to live their lives".
Addressing councillors at the start of the meeting, Diane Rowarth, from York Sight Loss Council, said: “Disabled people are protected by human rights and equality legislation, apart from in York.
“Our reputation as a welcoming city is in tatters.”
Lawyer Jane Burton, from York Accessibility Action, said: “We are not going to give up until our rights have been restored.”
The Liberal Democrat and Green-run council has said removing the exemption, which allowed badge holders to enter the footstreets, is necessary for anti-terror bollards to be installed to protect people from hostile vehicle attacks.
The row over access in the city centre has intensified since the council started to meet back in the medieval Guildhall chamber – which a report has described as unsuitable for people with access needs – for full council meetings.
York paralympian Beth Moulam wanted to sit in the council chamber, but was told there was not enough room. She questioned why the meeting could not be held downstairs in the main hall, which has level access.
Later in the meeting, councillors voted to approve a Labour motion to adopt the social model of disability, which says that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference.
Proposing the motion, Cllr George Norman said: “This council is reducing or removing people’s access to buildings, healthcare – life’s basics and life’s great joys.
“I was horrified to hear comment after comment from disabled people at how they have been treated by this authority.
“It is heartbreaking – people’s lives are being ruined.”
Cllr Denise Craghill said: “The Green group believes that this administration is right to take heed of counter-terrorism advice and protect the safety of the public in the city centre, but we are also deeply concerned about the negative impact this has had for some blue badge holders.”
She said the Greens would push for a review into how CCTV and sliding bollards could be used to allow blue badge holders back into the footstreets “without compromising public safety".
The Labour group has said it will reverse the ban if it wins the May 2023 local elections.
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