Published: Thursday, 18th June, 2009 8:55am

Wheelchair users demand action

County MSP Iain Gray joined constituents last Friday to present a petition to East Lothian Council calling for more disabled parking spaces and more wheelchair-friendly dropped kerbs in Haddington.

Scottish Labour Party leader Mr Gray handed the petition - which has more than 900 signatures - in to John Muir House on behalf of the campaigners, who are also unhappy at the abuse of disabled parking spaces.

He said: 'I"m pleased to support this petition. It"s a good thing that East Lothian Council - like the Scottish Parliament - has a petitions committee. These are important issues for many people throughout the county. There are dropped kerbs - but we need more. The council needs to indicate disabled parking better to motorists.'

The campaigners" petition requests an increase in the number of disabled parking spaces and dropped pavements.

Haddington resident and wheelchair-user Bob Pollock collected the bulk of the petition"s signatures in just four weeks of campaigning outside Tesco.

He said: 'We can"t get off pavements because of parked cars blocking the way. We need more dropped pavements around the town. We also need more disabled parking. There is no disabled parking in the High Street and only one space in Market Street.

Fellow campaigner Rebekah Gronowski, who lives in Gifford, said: 'We"re not getting at the council; we just want to raise people"s awareness of these issues.

'At the moment, we have to rely on the goodwill of the people to get parked and get around - we shouldn"t have to do that.

'We"ve raised issues in the past (with the council) and they"ve been good at responding so we"re hopeful that they will listen.

'It"s a safety issue as well as an accessibility one; some of the kerbs are more than two inches high and there"s a danger of people falling out of their wheelchairs.'

A council spokesperson said: 'We are aware of people misusing disabled parking spaces and we urge people not to do so. We make provisions for disabled access where appropriate and comply with disability legislation in relation to Scottish laws. The petition will go on the committee"s agenda and will be considered by the committee.'