Calderdale Council has called on motorists to park more considerately when visiting an upper Calder Valley sports centre following concerns about disabled access.
The move has been prompted by complaints from disabled drivers, who claim motorists are parking in the designed blue badge bays outside the entrance of Todmorden Sports Centre.
This means disabled people are having to park further away from the building, making it difficult to access the sports centre.
One man, who did not wish to be named, said he is particularly concerned about the issue as, with winter approaching, it will be difficult for disabled people to negotiate potentially slippy paths.
“There’s plenty of parking but people can’t seem to be bothered to walk from the top car park,” he said.
“People seem to want to park as near to the door as they can.
“I would like to see more enforcement of the parking.”
Robin Tuddenham, Calderdale Council’s director of communities and business change, said: “It’s really important to us that everyone in our communities can access our sports facilities.
“Disabled parking bays are reserved for people with disabilities – anyone who parks there without displaying a valid blue badge is mis-using the spaces.
“We are aware of the issue in the car park at Todmorden Sports Centre.
“We have clearly marked the disabled bays, and if we find that people are parking in disabled spaces without a blue badge, we put notices on their cars and use the public address system in the centre to ask them to move their cars.
“We can’t legally insist on it, or issue parking tickets, as the car park is unadopted.
“We would ask all sport centre users to respect disabled people’s right to park in these spaces and not park there unless a valid blue badge is displayed.”
