York Accessibility Action welcome the reopening of Goodramgate to Blue Badge holders following the election of a Labour run City of York Council and their promise to “Reverse the Ban”.

Cllr Pete Kilbane, Executive Member for Transport, has assured YAA that Blue Badge access will be returned to Blake Street, Lendal, and St. Helen’s Square after Easter 2024.

At YAA we are proud of our three and a half year campaign which started as #ClosedToUs and grew to include 27 charities, DPOs and stakeholders in #ReverseTheBan.

We were disappointed that Chris Fry, the specialist disability lawyer working for Scott Moncrief, whom we appointed to look into legal action, was unable to continue with the case. Mitchell Woolf, also of Scott Moncrief, took the case on and instructed Sarah Sackman of Matrix Chambers who gave us advice.

The £10,000 raised through the campaign went directly to Crowd Justice, not to YAA, and then was remitted by Crowd Justice directly to Scott-Moncrieff and Associates. All the money raised has been used for legal fees and expenses associated with the case.

Thank you for your support. We couldn't have done it without you. 

Mel

It has been some time since we updated our supporters about our possible legal challenge to York City Council over their decision to extend the pedestrian area of York City Centre and exclude Blue Badge holders and taxis carrying disabled passengers. After a positive start, with £10,000 raised here through CrowdJustice, where all donated money goes directly to the law firm involved, the lawyer on our case, Chris Fry, was eventually unable to continue acting through ill health, then left the firm. Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, managing director of Scott-Moncrieff and Associates, has reassured us that her firm remains committed to progressing the case and says:

‘Mitchell Woolf has taken on the case, and has instructed Sarah Sackman of Matrix Chambers. He has sent her a brief to advise on the likelihood of a successful outcome of any litigation. When we have her advice we will discuss it with York Accessibility Action to decide how best to proceed. I can also confirm that the funds raised through CrowdJustice were remitted to Scott-Moncrieff and Associates by CrowdJustice, and will be only be used for legal fees and expenses associated with the case.’

We are incredibly frustrated that we haven’t been able to hold the Council to account on this act of discrimination sooner which has blighted, and continues to blight, the lives of thousands of people who live in or visit our city.

We hope to be able to update you soon on next steps.

Thank you for your patience.

Mel 

on behalf of York Accessibility Action

Dear supporters, 

We're sorry that we haven't been in touch recently but as any of you on our social media such as Facebook https://www.facebook.com/yorkaccessibilityaction/ and Twitter @YorkAccessible will realise we are keeping the campaign in the public eye. 

We are still working with Chris Fry and after a recent further call for evidence, we’re currently collating the claimants and identifying people who have been most significantly affected by the extended street closures.

We may not be able to put out more frequent updates currently but watch this space.

Thanks again for your support!

Thanks to your help our lawyers are now reaching out to over 40 potential claimants and are preparing the case for injunctive relief to overturn the discriminatory decision in York to exclude Blue Badge holders from the city centre by City of York Council.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be asking for more information and looking to engage with more disabled and older peoples’ organisations to identify those isolated by the extended street closures since June 2020. We are so grateful to all our generous backers for the funds raised to get us here, & hope to apply any additional funds to increasing resources to assist with evidence gathering in the challenge against City of York Council.

A huge thank you from us all.

The Google form to join the legal case is at https://forms.gle/rPZYiwDfFHpgEdbA7 If you’d prefer a paper form or can use a supply of the paper form let us know via [email protected]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8fywXuMS-Y

A huge thanks to all our wonderful supporters, as we now have £8,315 pledged of the £10,000 stretch target from 242 pledges! 

A special thanks should go to the York Sight Loss Council, who, this week, donated £1000 to our campaign. This must show the City Of York Council that we do have the support of the visually impaired community in York, and, contrary to what the CoYC has stated in the media and at meetings, the visually impaired community actively want the foot street closures to be reversed. (or want the foot streets reopened)

Given that support covers the broad disabled community, including York Older People’s Assembly, we must continue to challenge the council to correct what they've been saying (to the contrary).

We’ve now had coverage in the local media, with regular slots on radio along with the national media. Members of YAA have been filmed by the BBC, ITV, and Sky, although some material is yet to be broadcast. We’ve also had coverage in Posability https://posabilitymagazine.co.uk/ and the Healthwatch York winter newsletter.

Please keep tweeting and sharing our campaign, so that we have a chance to challenge and overturn these dreadful closures.

If you are a Blue Badge holder and excluded from your normal business in the centre of York don’t for get to add your details to the claimants form https://forms.gle/rPZYiwDfFHpgEdbA7

In solidarity, all at YAA!

This is am update for everyone who has so kindly and generously donated so far.

We have been really overwhelmed by your support and we would like to thank you all for donating.

We can only mount this legal challenge with your help.

Next steps:

Following discussions with our legal expert, Chris Fry who is a leading disability rights lawyer, we are now fund raising for an insurance policy to protect against adverse litigation costs – so if we didn’t win the case against City of York Council, then we wouldn’t be liable for the costs. We are seeking barristers' opinion about our chances for a legal challenge and part of our challenge is time critical, so we need to keep the crowd funding campaign active and visible.

Funds are being held for barristers’ opinions and any overflow funding will go into defence funds.

We are conducting a two pronged approach to our challenge and consequently we are adding a claimants form to our page and social media challenges to gather claimants for a challenge to City of York Council, please do fill it in if you are affected and pass it on to others who might be eligible. You have a disability that means you have not been able to access places within the city centre that you could access before the extended foot streets closures. You will have suffered a detriment as you will have been unable to access services such as the main Post Office and City Screen in Coney Street, your opticians, pharmacy and shops and you didn’t have an alternative.

The claimants form https://forms.gle/rPZYiwDfFHpgEdbA7

Please do keep sharing the #ClosedtoUs Crowd Justice link on social media and encourage others to donate.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/closedtous/

https://www.frylegal.co.uk/blog/york-streets-cleared-of-wheelchairs

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/blue-badge-disabled-york-council-b1962812.html