Crawley woman who felt like a ‘hindrance to society’ by parking issue gets an update from Crawley Borough Council

Charlotte Katelyn Hynard, 27, requested access to a disabled bay parking space outside her property two years ago. Miss Hynard is wheelchair-bound and needs quick access to her property because of her condition.

Parking is often full outside her and her grandmother’s property on Broadwood Rise and Miss Hynard can be waiting for up to “45 minutes to an hour” to find a parking space. Miss Hynard has done her Christmas shopping early to avoid this issue. The street is located near the Crawley Mosque, a busy area for residents.

The request for a disabled parking space moved from West Sussex County Council to Crawley Borough Council’s parking team with little progress, said Miss Hynard.

This has taken a toll on her life as she has to plan her days to avoid the peak times of parking in her street.

Miss Hynard said: “There are days that I have to sit in my car and wait until the cars move to actually park outside of my house.

“WSCC came out and looked at the space for the bay and said I need to go to CBC. CBC said at first that the land is not owned by them, it is WSCC land. Then we finally got CBC to admit that it is the council’s land but it said it does not have any procedures for a disabled bay and it does not fall in its parking remit.

“In the end, both of the authorities said they were not giving me a disabled access bay. I feel like I am a hindrance to society and it makes me not want to go out because I don’t know if when I get home, I will be able to get back into my house. Am I going to have to sit in my car for 45 minutes to an hour to get a space?”

After a chance meeting with Cllr Brian Quinn at the Broadfield Barton, there has been an update and Crawley Borough Council has started the process of adding a disabled bay to Broadwood RIse.

A council spokesperson said: “We are in the process of introducing a formal policy in relation to discretionary parking for blue badge holders to replace an existing process, which is delivered on a case-by-case basis. While there is no formal policy, the council has provided a large number of bays for blue badge holders in recent years.

“The policy seeks to ensure that requests are received, assessed, assigned to the correct team and processed in a timely manner to ensure there is an appropriate amount of discretionary blue badge bays across the borough that our residents with accessibility needs are able to use.

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“We have made contact with the resident affected and have already begun the process of assessing the most suitable location for a discretionary blue badge bay to be located near their address and we will continue to progress this request.”