I have been contacted by people with disabilities. The misuse of disability parking bays may seem small to some, but for some people it has a very real impact on their daily lives. Disability parking bays exist for a reason. They are there to ensure that people with disability and mobility challenges, older citizens and those with medical conditions can safely and independently access services, the workplace, shops and community facilities. Unfortunately, we continue to see incidents of the use of these spaces by people who have absolutely no entitlement to them. What is even more concerning is the cases where permits are misused or displayed unlawfully. Recently in my local area, a vehicle was parked in a disability space using somebody else's permit.

I genuinely cannot understand why anyone would think this is acceptable. It is not an inconvenience for someone with genuine needs not to be able to access these places. This is causing widespread anger among people with disabilities. People have been ringing me in the past couple of days about this.

Ordinary people have to go to the shop or attend a doctor's appointment are finding there is somebody there who is not entitled to be there. I ask people to think carefully before they park and to leave disability bays for the people who are entitled to them. They are the people who really need them, who have bad mobility and need to walk a couple of hundred yards to a doctor's surgery or a shop. I ask people, when they are out today and all through the summer, to please stay out of disability parking bays.