This article is from page 10 of the 2006-08-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
A DISABLED CLARE woman, who needed to park her car in a reserved hospital space, claims that she couldn’t do it because some hospital staff were hogging the spaces.
When her husband rang to complain that the new spaces allocated for wheelchair users at Limerick’s Regional Hospital were full of nondisabled cars, he claims he was told that staff who regularly use the spaces had threatened industrial action if they were clamped.
The east Clare woman, who has asked not to be identified, has to use a wheelchair.
Last week, her husband drove their car, bearing an official disabled sticker, to collect her from hospital but found all the disabled spaces full.
“There used to be just a few spaces in the car park, but this was increased to 11 spaces recently,” he said. “But I still couldn’t get a space. There’s a notice warning that anyone illegally parking in a disabled space will be clamped, yet not one of these cars was clamped.”
The man rang the car-park management company and claims that he was informed that “after the extra spaces were provided, they contacted hospital management to say clamping should begin, But that the parking company said the hospital had told them not to do that because staff who had used the spaces before they were converted were threatening industrial action if any of their cars were clamped. What my wife and I want to know is how these people can be let away with that?”, he said.
In a statement on behalf of the hospital, a spokesman said, “We regret any difficulty experienced by this couple. The new parking system was introduced on May l and a review of its operation over the first few months will be held early next month. We have not been clamping illegally parked cars so far in an effort to get voluntary co-operation with the new system but this will change.
“Illegal parking by staff or members of the public in disabled places will not be tolerated. The remarks attributed to hospital management are incorrect.”