Sir – Last month I planned to visit Oxford.
Never having been before I took the precaution of ringing tourist information to verify parking provision for Blue Badge holders explaining that my disabled mother, temporarily without her wheelchair, is unable to walk more than a few yards at a time, therefore access was crucial to our visit.
I questioned proximity of disabled parking bays and was given the catagoric assurance that I would be able to park in the town centre. The town centre that is, not half-a-mile away.
The following day, a Sunday, we arrived at Oxford only to be diverted out of town. All attempts to drive in were prohibited by no-entry signs.
Why wasn’t I told of this? Tourism’s own website map highlighted plenty of disabled bays, but in reality these were out of bounds.
My elderly mother bravely struggled to walk the considerable distance from where we eventually managed to park, as several disabled bays had been suspended.
Our day was ruined by the tourist misinformation centre, from which, had I been able to get anywhere near it, I would have demanded an explanation.
We will never visit Oxford again.
Pauline France, Teddington
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