A Perth resident says her street is being blighted by a ‘disproportionate’ number of disabled parking spaces.
According to Grange Terrace resident Tricia Fox, the street has 14% of the council area’s 21 disabled spaces.
She said this was “despite less than 0.07% of the region’s population residing in this street”.
A blue badge holder in the street recently passed away.
And Tricia said despite this a third disabled space was added.
She describes the spaces as in “really random places”.
As a result, residents have few options for parking their vehicles.
‘No response’ from council
“It’s causing a lot of challenges in the street,” says Tricia.
“Parking is always a challenge.”
She says if all the spaces are full, residents have to park a 10 to 15 minute walk away.
“In my rage I contacted local councillors. Because I’ve not had a response from the roads department at all.
“There are solutions there. But the council are not listening. There’s no response.”
Grange Terrace is less than half a mile from McDiarmid Park, home of St Johnstone FC.
Tricia described trying to park on match days as a “nightmare”.
At these times “it’s highly unlikely we’ll find a space within a 20 to 25 minute walk of the house”.
“If you go out, you lose your space for four hours.”
Call for ‘crazy’ spaces to be redrawn
Tricia says in addition to the Perth street having more disabled parking bays than required, they have been drawn in a way that has not made best use of the space.
“The council in their wisdom have plonked a disabled space, literally in the middle. Space at one end and space at the other. It’s a giant space.
“What that then led to is residents who lived there not being able to park in their street.”
She says the third, most recent, disabled space drawn onto the road is also in an odd place.
“Perth and Kinross Council, again in their crazy wisdom, have put the disabled space to the right hand side of this bay but not exactly to the edge of it.”
‘We parked in a disabled space. That’s not on, I get that.’
Tricia admits that she has in the past parked in a disabled bay.
However, she says this was with the consent of her disabled neighbours.
“My husband got booked last month. I got booked this month. We’re not alone. Everybody in the street is now getting booked.
“We parked in a disabled space. That’s not on, I get that.
“But the neighbours are being quite neighbourly about it.
“The disabled people are parking to allow neighbours to park in the other part of the space.”
She added that neighbours had also received fixed penalties for parking on a grass verge.
Council considering removal of parking bays
Local SNP councillor John Rebbeck said he had been in touch with the council.
“A common sense approach may see the situation resolved.
“Its absolutely appropriate that provision is made for disabled residents, but I am aware that a previous blue badge holder who was resident in the street is now deceased.”
A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council said: “Disabled bays are an important resource for residents who have mobility difficulties and are provided if a Blue Badge holder applies for one, meets the necessary criteria, and would otherwise struggle to park near their home.
“Disabled parking bays also need to be larger than normal bays to allow additional space for access.
“We have been made aware of the issues in Grange Terrace and are currently investigating. If a disabled parking bay is no longer required, it will be added to our list and removed in due course.”
