A van used to deliver uniforms to Team England athletes was seen parked in one of three disabled spaces at the Edgbaston Park Hotel on the University of Birmingham campus without displaying a Blue Badge.

Ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, athletes were preparing and moving into local accommodation. On July 18th, Redbrick received an email informing the paper about a Team England van being parked in a disabled parking bay. The source stated in the email that they had needed to find a disabled parking space, managing to find only one of the three bays empty.

Whilst finding one empty disabled bay in the Edgbaston Park Hotel, the individual who contacted Redbrick about the Team England van said, ‘My mother is disabled and we were fortunate to get the last of the three spaces, but what about the next person?’ This raises concerns for other people who rely on disabled parking spaces.

According to the email, the van had been parked there for two days, with the source taking two photos of the Team England van on separate days.

The metadata in the two pictures shows the exact time and date on which the photos of the Team England van were taken – with the first photo being taken on Sunday 17th July at 20:57 and the second being taken on Monday 18th July at 13:33, showing that the Team England van was parked there at least twice over two days.

Upon coming across this email, Redbrick contacted Team England for a response, addressing the photographs and the two day time period the van was parked in the disabled parking space. They commented, ‘Team England has a number of accessible vehicles, which are being used to support athletes.’ However, the van did not display a Blue Badge, which permits the driver to park in disabled spaces.

‘We additionally have vehicles to support our logistics around villages and venues with our central operations being delivered out of Edgbaston Park Hotel. Due to the hotel being at full capacity, we had parked one of the vehicles in a disabled bay while there were no alternative spaces. As the congestion eased, both vehicles were moved to more appropriate spaces.’

Noting the busy preparation undertaken for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, a representative of Team England told Redbrick that the van parked in the disabled parking bay was moved elsewhere when space became available in the Edgbaston Park Hotel car park.

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