York’s Conservative Group Leader has condemned the chaos in York Labour which has seen them announce a ban on disabled people accessing the city centre from 10am until 7pm from 13th November to 21st December, which is the duration of the Christmas Market. Labour took the decision at last week’s Executive, following police advice to pass an Anti-Terrorism Traffic Regulation Orders (ATTROs) which will see all vehicles except emergency vehicles banned from the city centre within what is known as the secure zone beyond the barriers called Hostile Vehicle Mitigation Barriers. York’s Conservatives do not oppose acting on the police advice but are angry at Labour’s poor choices to this point which have created the unacceptable situation.
The previous Lib Dem administration brought in the barriers which saw disabled people effectively banned from the city centre. Conservatives and Labour both stood in the 2023 local elections with pledges to reverse the ban but now Labour is reimposing restrictions for several weeks, in a move being rightly ridiculed as them being pro disabled rights for ‘most of the time’.
Conservative councillor Chris Steward said:
Labour is in utter chaos on this issue with one of their most respected councillors, Cllr Melly, rightly condemning the banning of disabled people from York. We have said for some time that Parliament Street is not the right location for the Christmas Market – it should be elsewhere in the city in one place or spread in a number of locations. Parliament Street is always packed at Christmas even without the Christmas Market and it is too full for many people to enjoy it.
Last year, the last York Full Council of the year had to be rearranged due to access issues after Labour hadn’t realised that their Christmas Market fell at Christmas time, this just shows how disorganised they are. Labour needs to sort things out so the Christmas Market is open to all and that all of York remains so all year, not just for most of it.
