County Durham couple forced to miss Bruce Springsteen's Sunderland gig over lack of accessible parking
The couple, from Chester-Le-Street, are devastated they won't be able to get to the show
A County Durham woman’s been left devastated as a lack of accessible parking means she’s missing out on tonight’s Bruce Springsteen gig in Sunderland.
Chris Heselwood's mum and dad paid £140 for accessible tickets to the rock icon's gig at the Stadium of Light tonight, and early on, contacted the venue to ask about disabled parking.
Chris tells us they were told disabled parking was "first come, first served" so they had planned to attend early, to make sure Chris's mum Wendy, who uses a wheelchair, didn't have any issues getting in.
However, when his dad later got in touch to confirm this, he was told "we'll get back to you" multiple times, before then getting a message to say that all the disabled parking spots had been sold out, despite them never being given the option to book or purchase one.
It means the couple won't be able to get to the concert now, and they are devastated.
Chris tells us it they were both looking forward to it immensely;
"My mum and dad when to see Springsteen last in 1985 at St James' Park, and it is massively disappointing that they can't see him.
"My mum is called Wendy - and obviously in 'Born To Run' is the line - I want to die with you Wendy on the streets tonight,
"And my mum genuinely believes that song was written for her."
He's urging the venue to think more about their accessibility requirements so this sort of thing can't happen again;
"It's not as if it's an old stadium in the middle of a city, it's out of the way on an old mining site near the Monkwearmouth Bridge, where they could have quite easily used a few parking spaces, blocked them off so people can get out of the passenger side door...
"It's beyond comprehension how little they've thought of it -
"It just seems to me as if they've been 'Oh yeah we can get all these able-bodied people in, get them to pay their money and the rest of them it doesn't really matter.
"You know - 'we can sell 100 disabled tickets and only have 4 disabled parking spaces.'
"It's just utterly unacceptable."
We have reached out to the Stadium of Light via their contact page on their website, and are awaiting their response.