When the smoking ban was first proposed, I don’t think anyone would have predicted a situation where the “rights” of a smoker would be put above those of disabled people.

Believe it or not, the Holiday Inn in Telford has painted out one of its four disabled parking spaces and put picnic tables and umbrellas on it for smokers.

They have always had a poor attitude towards disabled parking, coning off the disabled spaces when they have large conventions at the international centre for the cars of the organisers and VIP guests but this is a new low.  There are 150 bedrooms in the hotel, a leisure centre open to non-guests and a restaurant open to the public.  At its peak there could easily be 450-500 people in the hotel and the disabled parking facilities now cater for only 3 cars.  And it’s not as if the hotel is short of parking – there is more than enough parking for their needs.