Parking porkies

There was a letter in the Chron a few days back from one GH Fraser:

'Tis fun being old. Nearly every day I read things in the newspaper which remind me of something hilarious out of the past.

The "No support for disabled park" mayors item had me laughing as I recalled inviting Chas Poynter to come and open our new premises at 80a Guyton St.

One of the questions on the form we filled in related to the accessibility of car parking for the mayor. Our reply was that he only needed to walk over the road this time, which he duly did...

Lately councillors/correspondents seem to have a need to score brownie points for themselves with trivia which only serves to diminish the person subscribing to such attention-seeking strategies.

From my experience with mayors, they surely need quick access to their cars to meet their ongoing commitment to the next sausage roll event.

Particularly relevant because, at the council meeting on 8 August, Cr Ray Stevens reminded the Diva that just last month he'd been quoted in the Chron as saying that councillors didn't warrant parking privileges when they came to meetings, because they were no different to the hoi polloi.

Ray then said the Mayoral car park, right at the main door to the council offices, should be made available as a disabled car park and reminded the assembled throng that the Diva himself had agreed to that some time ago. What had happened, he asked.

The Diva darkly muttered something about the "CEO investigating" and that there was no support among the disabled sector for parks at the the council. This was all reported in Tuesday's Chron on page 2 (where nobody expects to see news stories any more, because that's where the really important stuff goes, like sudoku etc). The Chron were having a rest from animal pictures but the council story headed "No support for disabled park: mayor" was right next to a story on the search for super-radishes for the A&P show. Prizes on offer for the top radishes include a bottle of Listerine and aerosol room deodorants.

So there is some relevance after all, as these fine prizes would no doubt help alleviate the smell of mayoral porkies in the air. A Watcher who is disabled was not amused when she went to pay her dog registration last week and found only one disabled park, as far as possible away from the entrance and with quite an uphill slope to negotiated. So she checked with the Disability Resources Centre who are unaware of any approach to them from Mayor, CEO or council to seek an opinion. So where does the Diva get his information that disabled people don't support more disabled parking, especially since street and metered parking around the council is also hopeless?

The results of the CEO's "investigation" ought to be fascinating. Might he not be tempted to tell a wee porkie just to keep the peace, because lord knows what a fuss there would be if poor Colin had to go back and tell the Diva to give up his prime space. After all, there's the risk he'd throw a tantrum of gargantuan proportions and order the CEO to surrender his park.

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