Department of Transport excludes over one million disabled drivers from the green car revolution

Posted on March 12, 2025 by davidhencke

Electric car charging at home, Clean energy filling technology. Pic credit:www.freepik.com

A damning report from MPs today reveals that 1.2 million disabled drivers have been blocked by the government from being able to use electric charging points cars at motorway service stations and garages.

While the UK is on target to increase the number of charging points for the growing number of electric cars not one of the 73,000 charging points reaches accessibility standards laid down by the government for disabled people to use them.

The reason is that to install disabled friendly charging points has been left as a discretionary option for installers rather than a mandatory requirement by government.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown, the Tory chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: “It is of deep concern that the needs of disabled drivers are being ignored. Not a single charge point in the country is currently fully accessible. We are risking baking a serious injustice into the fabric of a major part of our national infrastructure. Government similarly needs to understand how to remedy financial inequalities for those who have no choice but to use public charge points. Our report therefore challenges the Government – it must move at pace to overcome current delays and encourage take-up, while taking the time to ensure no-one gets left behind in this all-important shift to the future.”

The report warns: “Many disabled people are reliant on their cars as existing public transport does not adequately cater for their needs. Failure to address problems with the uptake of the standard will mean that the public charge point network will continue to develop without meeting the needs of drivers with disabilities.”

The treatment of disabled motorists reflects the disparaging attitude both the last Tory and the present Labour government seem to have for disabled people. Rail travellers are similarly badly treated with patchy provision to access station platforms and the London underground is only partly accessible with Euston underground been seen as the worst station in Europe. Compare this to the excellent provision for disabled people on public transport in Singapore, Sydney, Adelaide and Rio. I have had a good experience taking my late wife in a wheelchair round these cities.

And it comes at a time when the new government is planning a £6 billion cut in disabled people’s benefits and is expecting the disabled to get to work without providing proper facilities for them to travel there.

The treatment of the disabled is just one criticism of the present electric charging provision. The report found a very uneven distribution of electric charging points round the country. London, where ministers mainly live, has 250 charging points per 100,000 of the population. While Northern Ireland has just 36 per 100,000 population – suggesting that people taking their electric car on holiday there might have problems. In England the worst areas for provision were the North West, including the Lake District and the East Midlands, including Lincolnshire.

Most charging points are in urban not rural areas and there is also a problem connecting charging points to the national grid – which suggests that when they are used more widely we might find them running out of juice.

The previous government set aside £950 million to do this – but the report reveals nothing has yet been spent as pilot projects were subject to delays.

There is also an economic problem with public charging points paying 20 per cent VAT while those who have the space for a home charger paying only 5 per cent VAT. So it is much more expensive to use public chargers.

There may be a further problem for the many people who live in terraced houses who install an electric charger and then put cables across the pavement and roads to charge their parked cars.

So much for the green revolution which we are all promised. It is certainly happening, but not been managed well and disabled people are just an after thought as far as policy makers are concerned.

Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

£5.00

£10.00

£20.00

£5.00

£15.00

£100.00

£5.00

£15.00

£100.00

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate Donate monthly Donate yearly

Please donate to Westminster Confidential

£10.00

Namibia: Dunes,Moonscape, Prehistoric Plants and Chinese uranium

Posted on April 16, 2023 by davidhencke

A visit to Namibia’s extensive desert reveals an extraordinary unique environment probably not repeated anywhere else on earth.

Huge sand dunes near the coast compete with an enormous desert plain dotted with prehistoric plants and an unparalleled moonscape next to mountains full of uranium.

First the sand dunes. Just outside the port of Walvis Bay lie large sand dunes favoured by quad bike fraternity. We visited this first and saw how popular they were.

Next we passed the resort of Swakopmund A German colonist resort which still contains many of its original buildings.From here there is a huge desert plain where you find prehistoric plants.

One of the German style hotels in Swakopmund

The star of the plants is the Welwitschia mirabilis a prehistoric plant that can live for 3000 years and grows just two large leaves that often split into pieces in the arid desert. Extremely slow growing there are male and female plants which attract desert living insects and beetles .They live only inland in the Namib desert and in the wilder parts of southern Angola.

Female prehistoric plant which has red green cones observed by tourists on our trip

Life can exist in the desert because a fog moves from the coast during the night creating enough moisture for animals like the springbok and jackals to find moisture from plants including the dollar plant a succulent that stored water in its leaves.There are also sidewinder snakes and scorpions but fortunately are all asleep in their burrows during the day.

The most dramatic area is the rocky moonscape where nothing appears to live but in fact hides an oasis in a dried river bed that has existed since 1849.

the oasis bar restaurant and camping site

In the distance are mountains where Namibia’s huge reserves of uranium can be mined.Now all the main mines are owned by the Chinese according to our guide.The uranium is exported to China for its civil nuclear programme. Curiously another big Namibian export is marble to Italy so perhaps not all Italian marble is home mined.

Durban’s amazing hidden Zulu art and history gallery

Posted on April 11, 2023 by davidhencke

The day began very badly.We aimed to get a taxi to the City Hall which has both an African art gallery and museum.But when we arrived the city hall staff were on strike because of the cost of living crisis and it was closed.

The taxi driver recommended another art gallery in suburbs and we left just as a number of police squad cars arrived as there were reports of fighting in the building. We got to the second gallery only to find it was closed on Mondays.

About to despair the driver recommended a third gallery which specialised in Zulu art and artefacts.This was open though I later found you were supposed to book in advance.He had taken us to a gem of a place and we got a personal tour and Margaret got help to go round the place – an old Victorian building – in a wheelchair with strong Zulu men lifting it over stairs.

What we had discovered was a place called the African Art Centre or Phansi Gallery a non profit making company which encourages and preserves Zulu artefacts and supports black artists.The gallery houses a huge private collection by Paul Mikula who has amassed over year.

Part of the gallery included a Nelson Mandela concert poster.

Now I know nothing about Zulu culture beyond the populist view of them as warriors. What we were shown have us an insight into their lives and traditions and the everyday utensils they use. One of the most striking exhibits were the fertility dolls given to a young women on reaching puberty. They are given the doll at a special celebration and keep it to give to a man they agree to marry.

There were also ordinary utensils from spoons – there are male and female ones – and they keep them for life as they have communal eating,bowls for beer and special pots for making yoghurt.

A collection of spoons- male spoons have a pointed end females ones are flat

There were also wedding dresses which are put together by relatives and friends each adding a strip of fabric with the symbols of the clans of each partner.

Our guide shows Margaret one of the artefacts a decorative beer bowl

Without the series of unfortunate incidents earlier we would never have found out about this museum which also plays a big role in the community and helps local artists

snake sculpture in the grounds of the museum

Disciplined: The Adelaide train driver who said he locked disabled people on a train if they used the wrong carriage

Posted on April 1, 2023 by davidhencke

Our visit to Australia using a wheelchair to get around six big cities has been a heart warming experience. Visiting Darwin,Brisbane,Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth we found staff in museums and galleries and the Northern Territories Parliament extremely helpful. Pavements had dropped kerbs and public transport was disabled friendly with spaces for wheelchairs on trains.

Margaret on the Adelaide metro – trouble free on the way in – the problem came on the way back

It was therefore completely unexpected and out of character when we ran into trouble on the Adelaide metro system – not with the train but its driver.

Each four coach metro train has two carriages with spaces for wheelchairs. On the way back at Adelaide City station I put Margaret in the nearest carriage and as the platform was level with the train it was no problem. When we reached the terminus Outer Harbor where the QM2 was docked the train is higher than the platform so I expected the driver to put down a ramp.

“You have got in the wrong disabled carriage”

We saw him put a ramp down for a wheelchair in a carriage nearest his cab. And other passengers alerted him to our need. What happened next was unbelievable. He came up to us saying we had got in the wrong disabled carriage and he was not going to let us out.Instead he said he was going to lock us in and we would have to return to the City station – a 40 minute journey – and start again He said he did this to other disabled passengers if they broke the rules.

There followed a short stand off as I refused to take my finger off the button that kept the door open before he finally relented and said as we were visitors to Adelaide he would put a ramp down but we were not to do it again This took less than 5 minutes but he still complained that he had lost part of his meal break.

The situation was all the more worrying because we had only 20 minutes to board the boat and if he had sent us back we would be stranded in Adelaide.

Good ending

This has had a good ending. I decided to complain to the metro authority using their website It was easy to use and contained information so I could identify the exact train service. They promised to reply within ten days but replied in three thanking me for providing accurate information. Not only did I receive an apology for the distress but they said they had identified the driver and given him a talking to. They also said appropriate action had been taken against him.

This restored my faith in the way the authority handled the complaint and made us feel disabled people were respected there.

It was also good to see the authority taking the issue seriously and replying promptly. There were no quibbles and I hope the individual reflects on his egregious behaviour and no longer thinks he can treat disabled people in this uncaring and disrespectful way.

Kangaroo Island: How this wildlife idyll revived after facing near extinction

Posted on March 19, 2023 by davidhencke

One of the most remote places we are visiting around Australia is called Kangaroo Island – the country’s third largest island off a remote peninsula in South Australia.

View of the Kangaroo Island foreshore from our ship anchored in the passage

This island was once attached to the Australian mainland until the thaw following the last ice age created a sea passage between the island and Australia.

It has a chequered history.It’s first inhabitants were from Stone Age but never developed further after being isolated. It was the subject of Aboriginal stories and myths including one that the sea passage was created after a group of rebellious women fled a tyrannical leader who caused the sea to rise up and drown them.

At one time the island was deserted leaving its unique animals and birds to have no fear of humans. But then in the early nineteenth century a group of settlers and ex convicts moved in and there followed a massacre of its animals and birds for food and profits.

One species a dwarf emu became extinct just like the more famous Dodo as settlers ate them all. They then turned on the huge kangaroo population and decimated them. They also killed off most of the seals for their skins but ignored their valuable oil which meant eventually their community collapsed . ASA last gasp they started to kill off the whales of the coast but this was only seasonal.

One of the sandy bays on the island at Penneshaw

But it has a well stocked supermarket, petrol station,post office, cafes,a cricket pitch and a craft market and a number of tourist attractions. Also a number of new species have been introduced including koala bears and bees. Indeed the Ligurian bees on the island produce a unique honey as the population is isolated from any other bees.

Today’s island has recovered and many of its unique mammals are flourishing again.The main threat to them are wildfires which have destroyed a lot of the vegetation not people as the population is very small. Penneshaw the port where ferries link to the mainland has just 300 people.

There is a splendid open air sculpture trail on the island where hidden in the dense bush you can find wallabies and kangaroos if they don’t run off to hide. I have put up pictures of the trail below.

Hidden in here is a wallaby hiding by a bush

When I was there the bush was tinder dry with a few flowers in blossom.Here is one below.

Sealink ferry connecting the island to the mainland

Cunard’s shambolic gala centenary event

Posted on February 26, 2023 by davidhencke

It was meant to be the highlight of the centenary world voyage of the Queen Mary 2. Cunard chose the iconic site of the Flower Field Gardens at the Bay in Singapore. They promised “ you a night to remember”. Instead it became a night you wanted to forget.

The combination of the chaos at the event and the long bureaucratic Singapore immigration system which meant long queues both took the pleasure out of the evening.

It began with a long 45 minute wait for immigration to allow anybody to leave the ship.When we had cleared immigration we met our next disappointment. Cunard had promised to lay on disability transport to the event for people like my wife who is in a wheelchair. When got there we were not on the list to get any transport.Indeed from what I saw of the list only six people out of hundreds attending the event qualified. They did rustle up a minibus with two high steps which we shared with another couple who was also not on the list and who was hobbling around on two sticks.

Getting to the event added to the disappointment.Cunard had promised that all diets especially diabetics would be catered for . Their FAQs with the invitation said waitress would be”educated” about diets. Well apparently not. Presented with six starters we asked our waiter for advice about which were lactose free. His response was to go and find his manager. Worse was to come when we joined the long queue for a curry. Asking the server which food was diary free I got the brusque response “everything has dairy in it “

Eventually after someone just ordered rice and flatbread I got someone to give me just that – but helpfulness was not on the agenda. No wonder we learned later that one group of guests had spurned the Cunard haute cuisine and gone to the Gardens on site McDonalds to have their meal.

One group of guests spurned the food at the venue to eat at McDonald’s

So we’re there any redeeming features?Yes the Lion Dance was good and the flowers gardens beautifully lit up.

But it was not over yet. Going back we encountered the same problem in getting disabled transport back to the ship as we were not on the list.Luckily a Cunard rep did intervene and she got a shared minibus.

The gremlins at Singapore immigration had their last throw. At customs we were diverted to an empty line as my wife was in a wheelchair to speed us up. What we didn’t realise as we went straight ahead is that we had joined the line to board the Spectrum of the Seas the other cruise liner in port.actually It was only a person checking passengers passports who realised the green sticker on our passport meant that we must be on the Queen Mary and diverted us.

Finally I must thank the kindness of fellow Cunard passengers who took great care to help my wife on and off the minibus and the one kind gentleman offered to take my wife Margaret down a staircase that we had been misdirected to at the venue. We did decline and later found like the rest of Singapore the venue had wheelchair lifts to get to the lower floor.

Buddhas,Warlords and ethnic Vietnamese :Ho Chi Minh City’s History Museum

Posted on February 25, 2023 by davidhencke

Ho Chi Minh City is famous for a number of tourist sites including its Post Office,Notre Dame Cathedral and its Harrowing Vietnam War Museum.What is not so well known is the city’s history museum telling the story of the country for the last 30,000 years.

Tucked away in a side street off a main road next to the city’s botanical gardens this gem of a museum includes numerous artifacts dating from the Stone Age to the present day.

Big frieze across the entrance of museum

When you get there you are greeted by a large Buddha in a room full of Buddhas from different Asian countries.

The Buddha here is a reproduction of the oldest known Buddha in Vietnam dating back to the eleventh century

These fine stone sculptures date from the eleventh century when a warlord triumphed over rivals and led to a leap in artistic culture

The museum had some fine costumes and an interesting exhibit showing how ethically diverse the South Vietnamese with no fewer than 34 different indigenous groups in the country .

The sad thing is that we weren’t able to see the whole museum including more modern exhibits.officially designated as disabled friendly some of the rooms were inaccessible to wheelchairs because you had to go up a flight of steps.Also the ramp to the entrance was so steep that I needed the assistance of some fit young Vietnamese lads to get to the top.

Our taxi driver also helped Margaret get up the stairs to the museum’s cafe. On the plus side it had a very good accessible disabled toilet.

Fascinating exhibit showing the 34 different groups making up the Vietnamese nation

Finally since we were last in Vietnam the number of scooter boys and girls has grown on the roads. See a previous blog. So much so the latest new expressway has a a segregated lane for the daredevil scooter drivers Even there they move faster than some motor vehicles weaving around to overtake each other – just like in Ho Chi Minh City.

Off the Western tourist route: Kuala Lumpur’s amazing Islamic arts museum

Posted on February 16, 2023 by davidhencke

On the edge of the centre of Kuala Lumpur – a city dominated by huge skyscrapers and apartment blocks – near the greenery of Lakeside Gardens is a modern museum dedicated to Islamic Art.

Stunning costumes and textiles from India

The Islamic Arts Museum opened as recently as 1998 is not on Cunard’s shore experience programme and consequently has few Western visitors.But this is not a local or even a Malaysian national museum but an important international one.

It has over 12000 artefacts, a large reference library and tells the story of the spread of Islam from the Middle East across Asia and China through Islamic Art.Missing are artefacts from Spain after it was occupied by the Moors.

The collection is impressive. It covers metalwork,ceramics,textiles,jewellery,weaponry, manuscripts, China and furniture.

With 12 galleries it is almost too much to take in but it also a very cool Restuarant and Cafe to have lunch and a break. What is fascinating is how Islamic art adapted from Turkish carpets to delicate China through a rather extravagant costumes in India.

One of the most intricate China pieces in the museum

There was also an interesting collection of weaponry including heavily decorated rifles as illustrated below.

Textiles and ceramics were well represented.

The light and airy building makes the museum pleasant visit especially as Kuala Lumpur has very high humidity and temperatures often top 33C.

Free education,free healthcare,free land and free parking: How the Gulf States woo their people

Posted on January 31, 2023 by davidhencke

The imposing entrance of the Sultan.of Oman’s palace in Salalah

Cave in the foothill of Oman’s mountains It above a spring which is a popular tourist and picnic spot

My first visit to the Gulf states of Oman and Dubai has been an eye opener and shows how two relatively poor Arab Nations have been transformed by the rise of petrodollar. Both are effective absolute monarchies that still have authoritarian rulers. Yet both have used their new found wealth to benefit their indigenous people.

This may explain why both are stable states and largely popular with the Emirates and Omani population. In Oman the 50 year reign of the late Sultan saw his people benefit from the wealth provided by oil. In 1970 Oman had only three schools now it has nearly 1100. Education and healthcare is free for the 1.5 million Omanis and when they start a family they are given a free plot of land to build a house. The younger generation are bilingual as all pupils learn Arabic and English and all signs are in both languages.

Strict regulations lay down how each house in Oman should be built on a 650 square metre plot.It should be no more than two stories high and occupy a third of the plot with a high wall enclosing a garden and garage .

Dubai skyline from the deck of the QM2 with my wife Margaret

In Dubai the government also give a contribution to building costs. The main city is ultra modern and full of skyscrapers and modern apartments. In this heavily trafficked city of five lane roads parking is also free – there were some limited parking charges in Oman in Muscat.

What is really jaw dropping in Dubai despite its authoritarian stance on alcohol, gay rights and on insisting how modestly Muslim women should dress is how cosmopolitan it is. The Dubai Mall said to be largest shopping complex in the world with 1600 shops is a complete mixture of people with women in Western Style dress walking among Arab women covered from head to toe. While young men in shorts walk among young Arab men wearing full robes.

Of course expats don’t benefit from the largesse the Emirs show to their own people But professional Westerners benefit from high tax free salaries, cheap petrol and low utilities bills that are becoming more of a rarity in the UK as the wealth gap grows.

As an example my daughter who is a Dubai state school science teacher earns a tax free salary just short of £50 000 a year plus free and efficient healthcare and fuel bills of just £20 a month. Here in the UK the government is boasting that teachers will soon get £30,000 a year before tax and will have huge fuel bills and petrol costs. There is no comparison.

I noticed that Emirates airlines are now targeting Brits in the hospitality sector to work as cabin crew. They are offering tax free salaries,free training,free accommodation and healthcare as part of the package . In the UK the same person will be lucky to get just above the minimum wage working for Wetherspoon.

Dramatic fountain display in the Dubai Mall at night

The situation is not the same for workers from India,Pakistan, and the Philippines who take more menial jobs in construction or as maids to wealthy Arab families. They miss out big time and are on low wages and/or work long hours for little money.

One last interesting point.What happens if you have a car accident with a camel in Oman? According to our guide if it happens in the day the owner will claim it is his most valuable animal and you will have to compensate him handsomely. If it is after dark the camel owner will have to pay for all the damage to your vehicle. The trouble is that owners don’t always admit that is their camel and can be difficult to trace.

Crete’s Archaeological Museum: The awesome artefacts of our ancestors

Posted on January 29, 2023 by davidhencke

The Honey Bee pendant- nearly 4000 years old

One of the oldest fertility symbols image of a woman possibly 5000 years old

Knossos Palace – Prince of the Lilies – mural in the museum

This modern museum is a joy to visit and also for my disabled wife Margaret as it is easily accessible and staff extremely helpful.

These artefacts are part of a huge collection of thousands discovered in Crete dating back to 6900 BC of both the early Minoan civilisation and later palace societies housed at Heraklion’s Archaeological Museum.

The wonder of these exhibits is that they were created by people who couldn’t read or write yet perfected some of the most exquisite jewellery and crafted pottery. Most of them were discovered in early tombs because our ancestors believed they would be needed in the afterlife.

The sport section had a dangerous sport that that has died out involving bulls that has died out in ansoort that hasdangerous sport involving

The fertility symbol of a child bearing woman is almost universal to early civilisations.We saw a similar statute in Lima in Peru dating back thousands of years to the civilisation that precede the better known Incas.

The murals come from the Knossos Palace as most of the original ones have been removed or tarted up.The figure was thought to be a prince – originally known as Prince of the Lilies – but now thought to be more likely to be an athlete or a boxer – a sporting hero years before Christ.

Bull leaping as a sport

For a civilisation associated with the Minotaur the sport section had-a fascinating game which has died out. Known as Bull Leaping or Bull Vaulting intrepid athletes would have to grab the horns of a charging bull and leap over it. This rather dangerous sport was open to men and women, showing that sports equality is not a new phenomenon. It existed centuries ago long before the recent prominence given to women’s football and rugby.

Westminster Confidential

David Hencke's news, views, investigations and much more

Category Archives: travel