There are many quirky cities in the U.K. with York being one of them. If you've never had the chance to wander around the area known as The Shambles, you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd fallen into a street out of a Harry Potter movie. It's a well preserved medieval street, holding some fantastic shops.
Image Source: Peter K Burian (
Recently, it's not been so easy to get in and out of York, and it's not just down to the pandemic either. The city council had made the decision during lockdown to ban all blue badge holders from parking in the city centre, whilst also stopping taxi's from bringing people in as well. These shocking measures had been put in place to enforce social distancing, and are now being extended in order to counter terrorist activity in the run up to Christmas, with the Police having been quoted as only wanting to allow emergency vehicles anywhere near the city centre.
If you've ever visited - or indeed lived - in or near York, you will know that it's never been an easy city to visit, travel to and from, and especially park at...It's always been worth it though, and not just for a trip to Bettys Tea Rooms.
Now, it's impossible for me, and others like me, to visit, as I cannot park there, and the walk from the designated parking area makes it impossible to do. It's a shocking turn of events for a city designated in 2017 as the first human rights city in the U.K.
A permanent ban would be a breach of The Equality Act of 2010 - as it is a definitive act of discrimination against anyone with a disability that means that they need to make use of a Blue Badge.
A petition has been started to protest this utter foolishness: https://chng.it/yknzr8WHL5
How would you feel if one day, you couldn't drive your car into town to go to the shops, or get to a doctors appointment?
What would you do if you ran a small, independent shop in the city, and you couldn't safely get there to work?