Disabled Parking

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

Surely the data base covered the Withdean years.
Did they think that the 15000 new fans for Falmer were all able bodied?
You couldnt make it up

 

[Lindfield by the Pond]

Any idea whether the fans forum is on the radio, or can be listenned to on the internet? Can't see it on BBC Sussex, but maybe wrong.

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

Disabled parking eh.... reminds me of women, they're all thats left once all the twats have taken the good ones

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Yes it happened. We helped go through the replies & I believe there was in excess of 100 reponses. I was told the club sent them to everyone registered on the data base as being disabled. I think the club were aware that there could be some ambulant disabled that may not be on the data base.

Hi TT,
OK, is it fair to say that the club didn't circulate the questionnaires widely and thereby pull in people who might be classified as disabled but not on their d/b as such - just a thought but were the majority of 100 on the d/b fans with blue badges? The 100 in 8,000 at Withdean might equate to 250-300 at the Amex, without any away fans.

 

[tinytears]

Hi TT,
OK, is it fair to say that the club didn't circulate the questionnaires widely and thereby pull in people who might be classified as disabled but not on their d/b as such - just a thought but were the majority of 100 on the d/b fans with blue badges? The 100 in 8,000 at Withdean might equate to 250-300 at the Amex, without any away fans.

Well if not everybody got them then obviously it wasnt circulated widely enough. When we went through them we knew of some people who were not among rhe replys so we passed those names on to the club. I'm not sure how much information I can give out in regards to what people wrote on them but there was a high number of people who needed parking. As to how many of them hold I blue badge I do not know. We suggested the questionairre at the end of last season so as to weather the data base was still from Withdean or weather it was from tickets sold for falmer I could not say but I hope it would be the latter. BODs do not have access to the database so I cant say how it is set up.

As far as away fans go we have been told that 4 spaces will be kept for them.

 

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

Any idea whether the fans forum is on the radio, or can be listenned to on the internet? Can't see it on BBC Sussex, but maybe wrong.

Just been mentioned on BBC South TV that Radio Sussex are broadcasting the Forum live

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

forum now live on Seagulls Player

 

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

Martin Perry says there are 76 places, and that satisfies the demand.
Wake up and smell the gravy Martin

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

This bloody saga has claimed its first victim.

After two days of what has seemed endless typing on this thread, yesterday I got myself so worked up, stressed out and all round pissed off about this, that for the most part of the day I have been somewhat "under the weather".

If this is happening to someone like me, what is the constant worry about how are we going to get to the ground unless we stump up £180 blood money, doing to those of a weaker position?

I must confess the whole shine of moving to a new stadium after campaigning for over a decade, has been rubbed away. How sad is that?

Thankyou Mr Bloom and fellow board members.

So sad to hear top Albion fans of long standing like libra-gully feeling this way. Seems like a direct approach to Tony Bloom might be the answer. Or failing that an open letter to The Argus. The club will be judged on how it treats its most vulnerable fans, and its in the club's own interest to treat them well. Cos the whole South Stand has shuffled past that disgraceful tarpaulin in the corner for the last ten years, and now is the time to put things right. I think most right-thinking fans will have expectations that the club to apply the same high spec and attention to detail in their dealings with fans as they have applied in the building of the building.

For what it's worth, I feel confident they WILL put things right. Tho it will almost certainly require the application of the same Fan Power in the right places that we've acquired over the past couple of decades and that we thought we could now safely put behind us. Apparently not And top marks to Bozza for offering NSC as a vehicle for making the club do the right thing. More than Naylor EVER could.

 

[The Merry Prankster]

So sad to hear top Albion fans of long standing like libra-gully feeling this way. Seems like a direct approach to Tony Bloom might be the answer. Or failing that an open letter to The Argus. The club will be judged on how it treats its most vulnerable fans, and its in the club's own interest to treat them well. Cos the whole South Stand has shuffled past that disgraceful tarpaulin in the corner for the last ten years, and now is the time to put things right. I think most right-thinking fans will have expectations that the club to apply the same high spec and attention to detail in their dealings with fans as they have applied in the building of the building.

For what it's worth, I feel confident they WILL put things right. Tho it will almost certainly require the application of the same Fan Power in the right places that we've acquired over the past couple of decades and that we thought we could now safely put behind us. Apparently not And top marks to Bozza for offering NSC as a vehicle for making the club do the right thing. More than Naylor EVER could.

Jesus Christ on a bike.... I agree with every word of a long THPP post. Absolutely couldn't have put it better. As people, a society, a football club we are judged by how well we treat those less fortunate (apologies to the disabled, I couldn't think how else to phrase it) than ourselves. Step up Albion.

 

[libra-gully]

OH DEAR!, OH DEAR!, OH DEAR!

After a few days spent as high as a kite on my prescribed Morphine (yes readers, Morphine) My wife as instructed woke me this evening at 6pm and took me out to Falmer.

I must confess I felt and looked like a bag of S***. You get the idea. I sat down and waited to hear various views being discussed.

First Q was about Dissy Parkg. Perry's face said it all. He went off on the attack saying how we all had it wrong, and yes they were going to charge and it was all the fault of NADS.

Other Qs followed about players etc, but then somebody else raised the issue again about how we are being treated. Perry again went on the attack imo.

When a third Q was asked I believe by Tinytears, the top table went a bit beserk. Perrys answer was patronising and aggressive.

Then one of the worst moments in my life of following the Albion, a vast majority of those present cheered as Perry gave his defence.

I walked out!

Had I not been "under the influence" of my medication, and feeling like crap, I would have a made a public scene. In fact now I'm home, I'm angry with myself for not causing a merry stink.

All through this Tony Bloom sat there not saying a word, even with his own Uncle sitting behind me having walked in with a stick himself.

Where do we all go from here? There is clearly no point in meeting the club, as I have felt for sometime, as they are just not interested, and we are a bloody nuisance.

 

[Lush]

Well, obviously. If there were 25,000 parking spaces there wouldn't be an issue. That isn't the point though. The point is that the number of spaces for parking is finite, and known by the club. The club has decided to prioritise staff/press/VIP parking (608 spaces) and 1901 club members (650 spaces) over disabled spaces (46, including 4 for away fans, so 42).

There IS sufficient space for all the required disabled parking. The club have CHOSEN to use the space for other people to park, many of whom could (and should) travel to the stadium by other means.

Why has no-one picked up on the number of parking spaces allocated for staff? How many people these days expect to be able to park near where they work as part of the job? Even if you say 250 KEY staff, 50 press and 100 VIPS, that would free up 200 disabled spaces no?

Do stadiums like the Emirates offer over 600 parking spaces for staff and guests of the club or do people make their own way like everyone else?

 

[trueblue]

I sympathise with the disabled fans who feel they've been misled but I'm not sure some of the suggestions on here are the best way of getting these issues resolved.

This is certainly not the only problem the club has faced over the past few weeks in getting everything ready and, while it should be one of the highest priority, I don't see that dragging the names of Martin Perry et al through the mud publicly is helping the cause.

I know the response will be that previous discussions have gone nowhere but the club has only had possession of the stadium for a few weeks. It may be that it takes longer than that to find solutions to this complex issue (in among finding solutions to all of the other problems that have become apparent). In the meantime, the pursuit of reasoned and constructive talks at the highest level should be the priority - not maligning those who may well be working hard already to reach a satisfactory outcome.

 

[portlock seagull]

Largely agree trueblue, and that is what I and and others have agreed to do with mp following his kind offer tonight sure we'll get there!

 

[Chester Drawers]

Largely agree trueblue, and that is what I and and others have agreed to do with mp following his kind offer tonight sure we'll get there!

Thanks portlock - I see from the other thread that the plan is to meet up next week ...

rgds

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Can you elabourate on what that kind offer was?

Hi Chester, Carrot Cruncher told me who you are last night (I'm Noele btw ) MP offered to meet a group of disabled supporters and reps to remedy the current situation.

 

[trueblue]

Glad to hear it. I'm sure every fan wants this resolved for supporters with genuine access problems as I think we're all proud to be part of a club which makes a difference to people's lives. I just think it may take time.

I know the disabled fans have been pursuing this for months/years but until recently all of the planning has been purely theoretical. The continued uncertainty about how things will work at this point is not unique to disabled supporters - it applies to almost every aspect of the match day experience, like public transport, vouchers, e-purchasing, queues, what time the stadium will open and on and on...

Obviously, for the disabled fans these issues are far more important and pressing - not being able to go at all is much more distressing than the inconvenience all fans are experiencing as the club addresses the teething problems. It seems like they haven't appreciated that distress fully and that's a shame.

We are where we are though and I think it's better to accept the club, amid the very difficult process of building and setting up a new stadium, may have made some mistakes. The important thing from here on is to continue a constructive dialogue to address the issues.

There's an old saying that I've always found to be true: "you catch more bees with honey than vinegar". Even if it goes against the grain because people feel the club has let them down, it's better to keep things things sweet. You don't get the short term satisfaction of sounding off but you're more likely to get the outcome you want.

If not, go NUCLEAR

Good luck with MP.

 

[Emily's Mum]

Just re-read page 7 again and picked up the line "We later contacted the club to suggest they send a questionaire to ALL disabled supporters (not just BODS members) to gage what peoples needs were". Any idea if this actually happened and if so what criteria was used to identify a disabled supporter ?

I have an ambulent disabled Season ticket and both me & my Dad (my carer) had a letter at the beginning of June asking about our travel plans & if we had a blue badge. I assumed that they sent me the letter as I have a disabled season ticket. It's complete incompetence on the part of the club if other disabled season ticket holders didn't get the letter.

 

[Superphil]

Martin Perry says there are 76 places, and that satisfies the demand.
Wake up and smell the gravy Martin

The number keeps increasing, which I guess is good, but still no-one has stated what the actual demand is. By now the demand must be pretty much known give or take one or two. Once the numbers are known, then surely pressure can be put to oust 1901 parkers (into the University car parks) and make more space available in Bennetts Field. Then there can be pressure put on to recind the £180 fees. Once we know what the number is, we can use the figures to point out to the club what skinflints they are being, and why it is essential that they make the appropriate number of spaces available.

 

[HAILSHAM SEAGULL]

But they wont know what the numbers are because they only sent questionaires out to the existing Withdean data base, or, I assume, those that went to presentations at the Amex to get this years season tickets.
I personally didnt get to a presentation, and wasnt on the Withers data base, so I never received the questionaire. There must be loads of plus 4's and block bookings, eg A21 Club, that have liked myself, thought that you could apply for a Blue badge bay when they went on sale, as advertised on the clubs website, I think it was the 13th of this month.
I went to the Amex to try and buy/or apply for one that morning, only to be told they wern't on sale and it all depended on the rate of disabled mobility payment you received.
So the crux of the problem is, I dont think the club know how many they need.