Bins take up disabled parking space at Scarborough railway station

In the last few weeks a number of bins have appeared in one of the bays reserved to blue badge holders in the main car park at the back of Scarborough station.

The red bins entirely occupy one of the parking spaces available in the long-stay car park, effectively preventing disabled drivers from parking.

Shelly Farrar, who is directly affected by the issue, said: “I’m a blue badge holder and I drive to the station quite a lot to pick up my husband and I can never find anywhere to park because two spaces are always full and one is always occupied by these bins. It’s ridiculous.

“Why providing a service for residents if people can’t use it?

“We have blue badges for a reason, I know some people use them incorrectly but when there are people that do use it correctly and there’s a bay, give them a chance to use it.

“I always have to wait in my car because I don’t want to park it willy-nilly.”

A spokesperson from TransPennine Express, which manages the station, said: “A glitch in the automatic number plate recognition system at the car park meant that our blue badge customers were receiving fines for parking in the disabled bays.

“Following a review of this, and as part of our car parking enhancement scheme we have now moved the disabled bays from the main car park to the front and side of the station to maintain our policy of providing free parking to blue badge rail customers.

“Alongside this we have introduced an additional bay, taking our disabled spaces from five to six, improving accessibility to the station.”

According to TransPennine Express, the bins have been placed by station staff as a “temporary measure” to stop blue badge holders from parking in those bays and therefore receiving a fine.

Disabled drivers are now invited to use the designated parking spaces at the front and side of the station.