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Okay, so the title of this video is sadly not clickbait and I am genuinely shocked and disgusted
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because this is quite possibly the very worst situation to face UK travellers since Brexit
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Now, even worse as well, this actually refers to disabled travellers, particularly those who are coming over to Spain or they're coming over to Mallorca
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and they're hoping to hire a car to help them get around the island and enjoy their holiday
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Now, it's become apparent to me, following the research that I have done this morning
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that the UK disabled parking permit that you have been using when you've been on holiday
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in Spain or when you've been coming to Mallorca to park around the island to enjoy your holiday
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and to park in these disabled spaces, it's no longer possible for you to actually use this permit
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and you could risk getting a fine. Now, why do I know this
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Well, last year I wrote an article on my website, on the Mallorca Under The Sun website
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talking about how you can possibly use your UK parking permit while you're on holiday in Spain
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And I took that advice from the UK government website as well. But it does seem as well that this website advice is not correct
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So I had a comment on my website from a reader whose father was actually over here on holiday
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and who does have a disabled parking permit. And he parked in a disabled parking space
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only to find when he returned to the UK that he'd actually been fined by the police
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Now his daughter left this comment on my website article. Now she said that this referred to a fine of €100 increasing to €200 if it's not paid within 20 days
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And also that she'd contacted Calvia Council twice and sent copies of her father's UK blue badge
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And she didn't get any acknowledgement of this either. She feels that her father did absolutely nothing wrong because we're going to get on to the advice that's being given by the UK government in just a bit
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So she's actually been back to Santa Ponsa because they do have a timeshare over here and they went to go to the local police station to go and see what the situation was
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But that local police station, the police there could not give a definitive answer with regards to the use of blue badges from the UK here in Mallorca
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So I've decided to do some digging around. Now I did receive other comments on my website as well from other people over here in Mallorca with British blue badges disabled parking permits and one reader also commented that he continued
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using his blue badge in Mallorca without any problems having spoken to the traffic wardens
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in Palma who said that they could actually use this parking permit and he also went on to speak
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to other police officers too but he also went on to comment as well that it would indeed be a
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heartless jobs worth who would issue a fine. Now I'll leave you to make up your
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mind about that one particularly regards to this really elderly traveler over here in Santa Ponza who has walking problems and who
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actually parked in a disabled parking space with his British blue badge and
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still received a fine so yep I think we can safely say that maybe this is a
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heartless jobs worth but was he actually within the law to do this well let's
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find out. So I'm going to head on out of this car park now we're going to head on
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in the direction of Santa Ponte Beach. Now my next step was to track down the official disability care office here in
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Spain who are actually part of the Ministerio de Derechas Sociales for
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Agenda 2030 so it's an official government's department they should have the correct information
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Now just for information the Disability Care Office for the National Disability Council is
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a body in charge of promoting equal opportunities, non-discrimination and universal accessibility
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So when I emailed them to ask if UK disabled blue badge parking permit holders could still
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use their blue badges here in Spain when parking, they got back to me with the following email and
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they said, and once again I'm going to translate it here but I'm actually going to put the answer
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in Spanish that you can see on the screen. Now they say in relation to your query we inform you
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that parking cards for people with disabilities issued by the United Kingdom from today will not
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be valid in Spain. Now this is horrific news, this is terrible news
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this is from an official Spanish source We hearing of police officers here that are saying that they will accept these parking permits We can see parking officers as well accepting them But then we come across an official policeman who probably knows the law
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and he goes on as well to say, Sorry, we're going to fine you and this is what he's done
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Now this no way represents what this government department stands for and I want this sorted out
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So why the confusion? Well, now I'm going to look at the UK government website
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and this is what they recommend for disabled travelers over here in Spain
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Now at the time of filming this, the UK government's advice on the website
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and I'll leave a link to that below, actually says, well, it should be okay
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but we recommend that you print off this parking sign here, display it next to your blue badge and you should be okay
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But let's have a look at that text in this parking sign, shall we, and see what you guys have been fobbed off with
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So since no agreement has been made between the UK and Spain, the UK government recommend displaying this notice which says
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This card belongs to someone with reduced mobility that is visiting your country
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The majority of EU member states and the EU recognise and accept this parking card belongs to people with reduced mobility from other countries and that they should receive the same access to these spaces as those people
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And in brackets, you can see this is recommended advice from the EU
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It's not actually anything that's currently in law. And what's even worse as well, if you actually visit the link that's been promoted on this printout, it goes absolutely nowhere
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So at time of filming, this is actually what the government recommends as a solution if you're travelling over to Spain with a blue badge parking permit
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So who else knows this information about the UK parking permits here in Spain
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Well, the police clearly don't know. Sadly, Calvia Council, they have a really good heart and they thought that these parking permits would still be valid
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But I did pop into the tourist information office here in Santa Ponte when I came into the resort today
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and I asked the lovely ladies there and they said, no, sadly, they do know that the UK parking permits
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the disabled parking permits are not valid here in Spain. It's only the EU disabled parking permits that are valid
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So if you coming from any other country in Europe that part of this is a member state of the European Union and you do have a disabled parking permit then you can freely use that here in Mallorca and throughout Spain as well but sadly it not the case from the UK
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So very unfortunately I can't bring you any good news in this video I'm sorry it is bad news
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because if you do have a holiday booked this summer if you are in a wheelchair if you do have this
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blue badge from the UK parking permit it does look like you can be fined if you are parking
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here in Majorca. Now it's going to be a 50 50% chance as to whether you're going to get fined or
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not. It does seem that the police here and the parking officials are exercising some kind of
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leniency when they do see this UK parking badge. I mean some people are being allowed to park but
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some people are also getting fines too and it's not just from here in Majorca it's also in other
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areas in Spain as well so check out the article on my website too and you'll see some other comments
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that have been left by disabled travelers who are traveling around other areas of Spain too
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But it is without a doubt that this issue really needs sorting out so my advice is on this occasion
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please go and lobby your MPs, I don't know whether that's going to help. If anyone in Mallorca has
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contacts with the government as well, this really needs sorting out as well, this might be something
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for the new government to look at. We can't drive up prices of holidays here on the island only
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focusing on high value tourism when really everyone's just forgotten about all the
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all the disabled holiday makers coming from the UK. These people are being discriminated against
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they're being disadvantaged and this is supposed to be the land of equality and opportunity as the
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government office told me so come on we need to sort this out this has to be fixed as we go on
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into the summer. If you're over here on holiday if you do take that chance if you do get a fine
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do get in touch with me because I'm going to keep on highlighting this issue until something's been
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done about it because I don't hear of any disabled traveler getting fines over
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here it's not great for the island and it's not great for you too. Okay everyone
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thank you very much for watching please let me know your experience of traveling
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over here in comments below if you are a disabled driver if you have picked up a
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fine let's see how wide reaching this has become but more importantly let's get
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this sorted out it's part of the whole big Brexit mess and it needs to be
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sorted out ASAP. Okay everyone thanks for watching I look forward to seeing you on
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the next video goodbye for now
