Spate of hate mail for drivers with disabilities

Mobility card users are calling on people to exercise better awareness when confronting someone for using disabled car park spaces.

The call follows a story in Friday's Bay of Plenty Times about a woman who received an abusive note berating her for using a mobility car park, despite her valid permit allowing her to do so. Other disabled motorists have since described similar situations as hurtful, annoying and upsetting.

Click here to read the original story.

Tauranga woman Megs Ballam also experienced a situation where she received an abusive note labelling her as a "lazy slob" for taking up a mobility car park while at Mount Maunganui beach for a charity event.

"I threw the note away. It hit me quite hard. [Upset] is putting it mildly. I went into a bit of a depression after that," Ms Ballam said.

Ms Ballam suffers from a type of muscular atrophy that prevents her from being able to walk more than a couple of hundred metres.

Click here to read today's editorial on the subject.

On the occasion where she received the note, she had been using a beach chair instead of her usual cane to help prop her as she walked to the beach with her children.

"I get looks occasionally because it doesn't look like I'm disabled."

Ms Ballam said she would like people to consider checking the card instead of the person, as many people's disabilities were not obvious. Her card was placed on her dashboard, directly under where her note was placed.

They need to realise that five minutes, it might be five minutes to them but for a person that needs to use that mobility car park, it means the whole outing.

Megs Ballam

Ms Ballam said she hardly ever visited the beach because it was too difficult finding a mobility car park.

When she did, often the parks are taken by "ferals", "rich people who don't care" or often parents picking up or dropping off children.

Ms Ballam said the line of "I'm only going to be five minutes" was the standard response whenever she confronted someone illegally using the park.

"They need to realise that five minutes, it might be five minutes to them but for a person that needs to use that mobility car park, it means the whole outing," Ms Ballam said.

"If they can't get into that car park to get into the shop or where they need to go, they have to go home again.

Sharon Trubridge said she also received an abusive note when she was parked in Fraser Cove in October.

It's annoying. It's upsetting. Sometimes I might not look quite bad but I have another illness as well as the hip problems. I get chronic fatigue.

Megs Ballam

"I had a hip replacement and couldn't drive, I was on crutches. My brother-in-law and sister came in and drove us up to The Warehouse and parked in a mobility park. We got back to the car and there was this note saying, 'you should not be parking here, this is for people with disabilities', etc., with lots of underlining and use of capitals."

Again, the note was placed under the windscreen wiper directly above where her mobility card was placed on the car's dashboard.

"It's annoying. It's upsetting. Sometimes I might not look quite bad but I have another illness as well as the hip problems. I get chronic fatigue."

There are 3511 people in Tauranga with mobility parking permits, which are managed by CCS Disability Action.

Tauranga City Council issues about three parking tickets a week to people parking in a mobility space without a permit.