Disabled drivers will have to give up their designated parking spaces on their Poplar estate on Friday (November 2) because the housing association that let them park there wants to reallocate the land.

Furious Sonja Mills, 53, who is a disabled blue badge holder and lives in Glenkerry House on the Brownfield Estate, says she was devastated when she was issued with a notice to quit her parking space by the Poplar Housing and Regeneration Community Association (HARCA).

The part-time shop worker said: “I’ve had three cancers, a stroke, and a heart attack. I’ve managed to keep working, but I’m so tired when I finish work I can barely walk.

“Without my bay, I have no idea what I’m going to do. We have no recourse. I’ll have to park out of view of my home, and I’m sure I’ll go out less.”

Neighbour Maureen Dredge, 64, who suffers from osteoarthritis and severe asthma, said: “My car is my lifeline. It will be very hard to find street parking around here - but even if I was able to find a space at end of the road, that would take me 20 minutes just to walk it because it’s so hard for me.

“There’s no excuse for it.”

The 13 Glenkerry House drivers, four of whom are disabled, will have to relinquish their spaces off St Leonard’s Road.

The residents are not HARCA tenants, but the association had promised to honour previous parking arrangements after it took over some parts of the estate several years ago.

A spokeswoman for Poplar HARCA told the Advertiser residents were warned about the parking situation in July and said: “We are sad that we have had to tell residents of Glenkerry House that the longstanding arrangements to provide them with parking bays will have to end.

“This is because Poplar HARCA residents are being displaced from their parking bays due to the much-needed building of family homes locally.

“Poplar HARCA cannot offer street parking to its residents and so we prioritise our estate parking to them.”