Overweight Rotherham Drivers To Be Given Free Parking In Disabled Bays
2016-12-02
Rotherham Borough Council have announced plans to extend free access to disabled parking spaces in the town to overweight drivers. as from February 2018. Anyone with a BMI of 32 or above will be able to use the disabled spaces for free on an unlimited time basis.
Pat Kelly who is in charge of implementing the large and rotund driver scheme (LARDS) accepts that the plans will be controversial but says they’re essential “You have to look at the practicalities.” she said “People of size have exactly the same mobility issues as other disabled people, so why shouldn’t they be afforded the same benefits? We’re just trying to make life a bit easier for them and enable them to use the towns shopping facilities.”
To qualify for the scheme, drivers will have to be weighed at their local GP and then apply for a LARDS pass, which will then give them unlimited free parking in disabled bays throughout the borough. There are no other requirements to qualify. If drivers lose weight they will have to give up their pass.
Pat Kelly hopes that this is just the start of arrangements which will help overweight drivers. She is already talking to local supermarkets to persuade them to open up their mother and toddler spaces to larger drivers and petrol stations are being encouraged to provide assistants to remove the need for heavier customers to get out of their car when filling up.
“I know a lot of people won’t be happy with this,” she said “but many disabled people have wheelchairs.,crutches and sticks to help them get around. People of size have nothing.”
