Blue badge bays are set to be reintroduced in parts of Lichfield city centre.
The disabled parking spaces were removed by Lichfield District Council in July.
The local authority said the move was designed to aid social distancing outside shops.
But the council said a review of the decision meant 21 bays would be reintroduced on Tamworth Street and Bore Street from Friday (25th September).
Spaces set aside for cafes and licensed premises to use as outdoor seating will remain unavailable.
Cllr Liz Little, Lichfield District Council’s cabinet member responsible for economic development, said:
“Having reviewed the city centre and listened to local people, we are happy to be bringing half of the disabled parking bays back into use.
“It will mean Blue Badge holders will once again be able to park in the city centre, close to shops and banks. They just need to avoid any bays that still have traffic cones around them.
“We think this is a good compromise, as it is vital people have enough space to social distance in our bustling city centre, while making sure we help visitors with mobility issues as much as we can.”
Cllr Liz Little, Lichfield District Council
The council also confirmed that 21 parking bays will also be retained as blue badge spaces across Bird Street and Lombard Street car parks.
Common sense prevails! Council got it wrong again!!
Clever. Setting a precident to maybe remove the rest of the bays. The pedestrianised section bit of Lichfield has never been a place for pedestrians – previously you have had to constantly watch for cars cutting through or looping around constantly for spaces.
Who is going to sit outside in cold weather?
They should put all disabled ” blue badge ” parking back.
I bet theyve had to put them back as lack or drop in revenue in shops in lichfield…as a blue badge user I have boycotted lichfield since these measures have come in and shopped elsewhere.
The cafes could put up space heaters like they do in cities like Paris then the outside pavement terraces can be used all year. We might then just become part of the Cafe Culture instead of the drunk culture. You do not need to park right outside Natwest then miracal and you can get to Wilko but not managed from Woolworths car park to Natwest
Hopefully they can convert the spaces at the back of B&M that have been used as disabled spots recently – carnage to get a parking space there and most of the disabled spots were empty.
Great, so not only do we have to avoid other people we now have to dodge vehicles again. Sure parents with kids will love that.
I have recently been to Shrewsbury, you do not have to dodge cars in the main st it is a pedestrian street. Not even blue badges. Same in Chester and many other cities. It is unnecessary to have cars in centre of town as it is no more than 200 yard side to side
Indeed. Hate to sound harsh on this, but the new Blue Badge spaces aren’t that much further away from the centre of the city. They still provide excellent access. With the previous setup and the amount of Blue Badge spaces usually taken, there was no guarantee that you could park directly in front of the shop or cafe you wanted to reach anyways.
The fundamental qualifying criteria for being issued a blue badge is that you are unable to walk (with walking aids if necessary) more than 50 meters. Not five times that distance to Bird Street car park while using alleyways that cannot possibly allow for social distancing due to only being 1.4 meters wide at their narrowest point. As for the café culture this is the Midlands not the Algarve. They have seven months of sunshine, we are lucky to get seven days. The charity Lichfield Council “worked with” Access Able have told me that all the advice given to the council was completely disregarded with every recommendation ignored. The councils latest brainwave to put pinch points on St John’s Road and cause chaos at the traffic lights just beggar’s belief. Just leave the traffic control and parking alone it works fine as it was.
From the original LDC statement in July: “The council has also coordinated with AccessAble and to make sure Blue Badge holders can still access city centre shops and businesses, it is creating an additional 42 extra spaces, with suitable disabled access areas, at Bird Street car park.”
I too have been told by AccessAble that it was consulted by LDC but that the council failed to implement any of it’s key recommendations and instead continued with the same plan it was originally putting forward.
So to claim it had co-ordinated with the UK’s leading access organisations is at best misleading. It adds a weight of justification to the original decision that is clearly false.
Cllr Little now claims these new changes are a result of listening to the views of local people. Really? That seems to be a stretch when these new changes seem to have divided opinion just as much as the original plan.
It would also be good to get LDC’s confirmation that those businesses allowed to operate outdoor seating on roads and pavements have the necessary licences to do so.
Far from improving safety and access to the city centre, the council has created confusion and anger. It has also alienated a sizeable number of people by effectively stopping them from entering the city centre at all.
All for what, exactly?
And all based on the spurious claim that it had co-ordinated with accessibility experts to conduct up with the plan.
LDC did co-ordinate with the experts, but just to ignore all their advice.
Shoddy barely covers LDC’s actions on this.
We have boycotted Lichfield for past several years we paid for parking and still got parking fine. up urs Lichfield managed to shop elsewhere. Your loss.
COMMON SENSE HAS PREVAILED at long last…. I have not been into Lichfield since the parking was taken away, I am sure the tradespeople have suffered. I will now be able to get to the dentist in Bore Street.
Angry Man has hit the point about Blue Badge criteria, for those with mobility issues, pushing all disabled parking further away from the centre is a nightmare and severely impacts many individuals. I know of people that come into Lichfield and use multiple parking bays to carry out their activities, i.e. Start at a bay next to Cafe one, to get to shops in the precinct, then move to park at spaces outside HSBC for bank/market/shops then move on to park outside Wilkos to access Bore street businesses. Able bodied people would be able to walk those distances in a matter of minutes, but for those with mobility issues, closing the centre was a radical change that denied them access, forcing them to go elsewhere or worse, no longer been able to do what they could previously, nobody would like that, so why impose it on the disabled?
LDC/SCC should be carrying out improved traffic control using their traffic wardens to ensure the Blue Badge system is used correctly and that “other” vehicles are actually allowed into the centre, which would cut down numbers.
Angry man you do not need sunshine to have a cafe culture. This is part of the problem with Lichfield’s residents of all types they insist in being able to park outside their favourite shop
Stop fussing over Lichfield and get the council to pay a visit to Cedar Close Burntwood and just look at how items are just dumped on the road and left there for several weeks.One has dumped a calor gas canister and it’s been there for over a month with no sign of it being moved.
Angry Man- spot on. Mike- you just don’t get it do you? Lots of people need to park as close as possible to banks, opticians, dentists and so on, due to mobility issues. Otherwise they can’t access such places and have been denied this with the removal of useful disabled spaces. Also scandalous that the claim that the council consulted with a disabled organisation is totally misleading as they ignored their recommendations. Strangers to the truth is a phrase that comes to mind for LDC. How is the claim that social distancing was enhanced remotely credible when half a pavement was taken up by cafe outside seating?
What do the residents of Chester, Shrewsbury,and many other places do as the pedestrian streets in those places are just that. Pedestrian. Lichfield’s pedestrian zone is a very dangerous place to walk,many a time I have been walking in the road near Wilko to find a blue badge driver inches from me and getting aggressive as though I should not be there. It is called a Pedestrian zone
There should be barriers put up at every entrance into the town each day from 11am to 5pm. This gives time for disabled people to shop and deliveries to be made. To say the town is pedestrianised is a joke. It needs someone from the council to stand outside MacDonalds issuing fines to car drivers who shouldn’t be there. I have witnessed a traffic jam outside Wilko in this ‘Pedestrianised’ town. It needs sorting out.