I WAS disgusted to hear that the National Railway Museum chose to allow Wedding Fayre cars to block disabled parking spaces on Sunday, March 13.

This is not the first time that this has happened. Apparently they said that other disabled spaces were available elsewhere but there were no redirection signs and, presumably, these spaces were at a further distance from the museum entrance - hardly a reasonable alternative for people with mobility impairments.

Apparently the museum spokesperson also said that there were free spaces in non-disabled bays (though how people with mobility impairments are supposed to use narrow ordinary parking spaces was not suggested).

The lack of awareness shown by the museum is staggering in this day and age and they appear not to take heed of the Disability Discrimination Act.

The days should be long gone where disabled facilities can be cast aside so readily and disabled people treated with such disrespect. There are no circumstances that would justify excluding or even inconveniencing disabled people in this way and especially not in order to accommodate a commercial event.

Did they not consider asking the Wedding Fayre cars to park elsewhere? The Museum should issue an immediate statement that this will never happen again - and it sounds as if they need to send their staff on disability awareness training.

Marilyn Crawshaw,

Middlethorpe Grove,

Dringhouses, York.

Updated: 11:33 Tuesday, March 29, 2005