Historic trike journey ‘will highlight importance of mobility’ to minister

A campaigning disabled people’s organisation is hoping its bid to recreate an historic journey across the Alps on a petrol-driven tricycle will highlight to a government minister the importance of providing mobility support to disabled people.

Disabled Motoring UK (DM UK) – the charity formerly known as Mobilise – is retracing the epic, 1,500 mile journey of O A “Denny” Denly in 1947, in which he drove his petrol-driven Argson tricycle from London to Switzerland, across the Alps to Geneva, and back to London.

Denly, who died last year, was co-founder of the Invalid Tricycle Association (ITA), which later became the Disabled Drivers’ Association, and then merged with another charity in 2005 to become Mobilise.

Denly’s journey – which included a climb of almost 8,000 feet – is being retraced as closely as possible using his original 1932 trike, which has been restored by a member of the Royal Light Dragoons, based near the charity’s Norfolk headquarters, who has joined the team as travelling mechanic for the Alps Challenge.

On the team’s return to London, the charity will hand a letter to Maria Miller, the minister for disabled people, highlighting the importance of independent mobility.

Helen Dolphin, director of policy and campaigns for DM UK, said the letter would stress the impact of rising fuel prices on disabled people, with many unable to afford to drive the vehicles they had obtained through the Motability scheme.

The letter will also call for councils to take tough enforcement measures against people found using forged, stolen or borrowed blue parking badges.

And it will ask the minister to make it clear in the welfare reform bill that disabled people will continue to receive personal independence payment (PIP) – the planned replacement for disability living allowance (DLA) – once they reach 65.

They also want the government to allow people who become severely disabled only after the age of 65 to be able to apply for the mobility component of DLA.

Dolphin said: “The main thing is that we do not want to go back to 1947. If people have got cars they cannot use and haven’t got any benefits, it’s pretty much like it was in 1947, apart from the fact that you don’t get issued with a mobility trike.”

The first leg of the challenge was completed by TV presenter and former Paralympic basketball star Ade Adepitan, who set off from Greenwich on Saturday (4 June), despite last-minute problems with an overheated clutch – the original part, now nearly 80 years old – and a puncture.

The second leg was taken by DM UK member Dan McIntyre, from Manchester, who is carrying out most of the driving duties on the challenge.

Once he reaches Switzerland, another leg is set to be completed by Nicholas Hamilton, the disabled younger brother of Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton, and an up-and-coming racing driver in his own right.

Once McIntyre has driven the trike safely back to London, it will be steered across the finish line outside the Houses of Parliament on Thursday (16 June) by another former Paralympian, Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

Supermarkets ignore government call to clamp down on bay abuse

Major supermarket chains have been criticised for failing to do more to stop the abuse of accessible parking bays, despite a government minister asking them to tackle the problem.

Liberal Democrat transport minister Norman Baker wrote to supermarkets earlier this year as part of government efforts to reform the system of disabled people’s blue parking badges.

He announced this week that seven supermarkets had expressed their support for government efforts to “eradicate blue badge abuse”.

Disabled campaigners have been calling for supermarkets to introduce stricter enforcement of their accessible spaces – including the introduction of widespread fines for abuse – for about 10 years.

But when Disability News Service contacted the “big four” chains – Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons and Asda – none of them said they had agreed to strengthen enforcement as a result of Baker’s letter.

Helen Dolphin, director of policy and campaigns for the charity Disabled Motoring UK [DM UK, formerly Mobilise], welcomed the minister’s letter and said she hoped he would write to the supermarkets again in several months to ask what action they had taken.

She said supermarkets knew the only method of enforcement that worked was issuing fines.

Under the Equality Act, supermarkets that operate their own carparks would probably have to show they had taken reasonable steps to ensure their accessible spaces are available to their disabled customers.

Dolphin said she believed there had been a number of such cases taken by disabled people under the Disability Discrimination Act, but that they had all been settled out of court.

She added: “I would like to see more people take court actions against supermarkets for failing to tackle abuse.

“It is only when they are threatened with legal action that they pull their fingers out and do something. If I face such discrimination, I will be taking a case. It seems to be the only way forward.”

Of the big four, Asda led the way by introducing widespread fining for abuse in 2008.

Tesco’s efforts have in the past been criticised as half-hearted by campaigners, with the last survey by the Baywatch campaign – DM UK, the British Polio Fellowship and Disability Now magazine – finding its bays were the most likely to be abused of the four chains.

Morrisons has also been criticised for lagging behind in introducing fining, while Sainsbury’s was the best performer in the last Baywatch survey after it began fining some abusers in 2009.

But none of the four said they had agreed to toughen their enforcement.

Tesco said its policy had not changed as a result of the minister’s letter.

A Tesco spokesman said they did not fine bay abusers in all their carparks, although he claimed that “in some areas where abuse is prevalent we are very strict”, while in other carparks “there is no need”.

A Morrisons spokesman said: “We are happy to reinforce the government’s message, but has something voluntarily changed in terms of our policy? It has not.”

He said the store fined abusers “from time to time” but not more often because “we prefer to educate first and penalise afterwards”.

Sainsbury’s said its position “has not changed with this announcement”, which it said was “an opportunity to launch our support for the initiative and reiterate the fact that we recognise that this is something that frustrates our customers”.

Asda also confirmed that its policies had not changed as a result of Baker’s letter, although –uniquely among the big four – it said it fined all cars abusing accessible spaces.

A spokeswoman said: “We are leading on this and always have done. Any car using a disabled space without a blue badge will be fined immediately. That is our policy.”

A Department for Transport spokeswoman said: ““All of the supermarkets who responded share the government’s view that abuse of blue badges needs to be tackled and said they are taking action on this issue.

“This is an important step in tackling abuse of blue badges and ensuring that the government’s reforms announced in February are more widely enforced.”

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

Repeat of epic journey will highlight fuel price rises and benefits concerns

A disabled people’s organisation is to recreate an historic journey in which a three-wheeled “invalid carriage” was driven across the Alps, in a bid to highlight cuts to disability benefits and problems caused by rising fuel prices.

Campaigners will repeat the epic, 1,500 mile journey of O A “Denny” Denly in 1947, in which he drove his petrol-driven Argson tricycle – which had a top speed of 30 miles per hour – from London to Switzerland, across the Alps to Geneva, and back to London.

Denly had planned to visit Switzerland when he took his first leave from the Royal Navy, but became disabled after contracting polio in Ceylon in 1945. After leaving hospital and securing a job as a hospital administrator, he decided to go ahead with the trip to Switzerland on his trike.

Denly, who died last year at the age of 86, was co-founder of the Invalid Tricycle Association (ITA), which later became the Disabled Drivers’ Association, and merged with the Disabled Drivers’ Motor Club in 2005 to become Mobilise.

Denly’s journey – which included a climb of almost 8,000 feet – will be retraced in June using his original trike, which has been restored by a member of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, who are based near Mobilise’s Norfolk headquarters.

The Alps Challenge will commemorate Denly’s life and achievements and raise awareness of the renaming of Mobilise as Disabled Motoring UK (DM UK) as well as highlighting rising fuel prices and government cuts to disability living allowance (DLA).

Members of DM UK, and disabled members of the armed services, will each drive a leg of the journey, which will start at the charity’s headquarters and end more than two weeks later at the Houses of Parliament, with the final leg driven by Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson.

Helen Dolphin, director of policy and campaigns for DM UK, which campaigns on issues around the mobility of disabled people, said disabled motorists were being increasingly hit by rising fuel prices, while there were also “a lot of concerns about whether people will keep their DLA”.

She said the message of the Alps Challenge was that disabled people do not want to return to “how things used to be” in 1947, with severely restricted mobility.

She said: “Because many disabled people have to drive automatic vehicles and use larger vehicles which carry heavy equipment, the amount of fuel they have to use is disproportionate.

“We have people saying to us, ‘I have this wonderful car but it sits on my drive and I only use it when absolutely necessary.’”

The charity has asked the Treasury to introduce a VAT rebate on some of the fuel used by disabled drivers.

Dolphin said “Mobilise” had only ever been intended to be a temporary name. But the main reason for the change, she said, was that Mobilise was frequently mistaken for Motability, the charity which runs the disabled people’s car scheme. Mobilise members voted 574 to 30 in favour of the name change to Disabled Motoring UK.

News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com