Disabled Parking Assessment

simplydevine05

As someone who is waiting for a blue badge and who is a wheelchair user, to the ignorant who say the car parking spaces should only be used when the disabled person is driving and if an able bodied person is driving they should drop the disabled person off and park elsewhere, if I cannot get out of a car where there is space for my wheelchair to go, and believe me I have had to do it on many occasions, it cripples me. I cannot walk due to a split pelvis and the longer I have to sit the more pain I am in, so why should I have to sit for longer while my other half goes off to park the car and then goes to get it back again?? Yes it is for those who can barely walk and believe me, if you can't walk you can't drive a car and then be able to get out of the car and go off to do their shopping without an able bodied person with them. And for the record, I for the most part look perfectly healthy and even when in my wheelchair I am frowned upon as I "don't look disabled". Some people have no idea!

uponahill

LimeLight wrote: »

Supermarket bb spaces aren't a legal requirement and they have to rely on the respect and common sense of drivers.

Sadly lacking in our area it seems.

Although I suppose people hate to see those on benefits and being disabled as somehow getting more than they are!!

uponahill

wiccanlou wrote: »

At Lakeside shopping centre if you park in one and don't have a valid blue badge or a temporary one from the shopmobility you get a £25 parking notice :-)

Which is nothing more than an unsolicited invoice which carries no legal weight whatsoever - that's if you read the forum on 'Parking Tickets'. The vast majority either ignore the demand or refuse to supply information to identify the driver of the car.

As such there is no deterrent to those who abuse the disabled bays because they know full well that the company hasn't got a leg to stand on if they try to claim the £25!!

Wheel clamping - yes I am all for that to happen including in all of the main supermarket car parks - they would soon get the message!

uponahill

simplydevine05 wrote: »

As someone who is waiting for a blue badge and who is a wheelchair user, to the ignorant who say the car parking spaces should only be used when the disabled person is driving and if an able bodied person is driving they should drop the disabled person off and park elsewhere, if I cannot get out of a car where there is space for my wheelchair to go, and believe me I have had to do it on many occasions, it cripples me. I cannot walk due to a split pelvis and the longer I have to sit the more pain I am in, so why should I have to sit for longer while my other half goes off to park the car and then goes to get it back again?? Yes it is for those who can barely walk and believe me, if you can't walk you can't drive a car and then be able to get out of the car and go off to do their shopping without an able bodied person with them. And for the record, I for the most part look perfectly healthy and even when in my wheelchair I am frowned upon as I "don't look disabled". Some people have no idea!

I too am lucky if I can walk 10 metres without help. Yet when we go shopping, my wife pulls up right outside the main doors gets me out and then goes off to park in the car park (not the disabled bays - although I do have a BB and a car that is registered as disabled for tax purposes).
Having finished shopping, my wife leaves me at the main doors, goes to get the car with the trolley, empties the trolley and comes round to pick me up.

We see it that those who drive themselves then get into a wheelchair on their own need the disabled bays, not us.

kingfisherblue

My son has a Blue Badge, but I cannot drop him off and then go and park elsewhere. Although he is nearly 14 years old, mentally he is like a toddler. He has little road sense, no awareness of strangers, and I can hardly park his wheelchair up by the supermarket doors while I park, as he would not understand. So I use the BB for what it is intended - to park in a disabled space. I only use it when he is in the car, and it is a massive help. He can walk, but only for very short distances as he becomes breathless easily and also gets severe pain in his limbs. The pain is often present even when he is sitting down.

The one thing I wish for when parking is a longer space. I prefer to reverse into spaces, as visibility is better when driving out. Unfortunately, when you have a wheelchair in the boot, it is sometimes difficult to reverse in because of the lack of space to open the boot and get the chair out. I'm sure I'm not the only driver of an ordinary sized car (Nissan Note) who has this problem.

uponahill

kingfisherblue wrote: »

My son has a Blue Badge, but I cannot drop him off and then go and park elsewhere. Although he is nearly 14 years old, mentally he is like a toddler. He has little road sense, no awareness of strangers, and I can hardly park his wheelchair up by the supermarket doors while I park, as he would not understand. So I use the BB for what it is intended - to park in a disabled space. I only use it when he is in the car, and it is a massive help. He can walk, but only for very short distances as he becomes breathless easily and also gets severe pain in his limbs. The pain is often present even when he is sitting down.

The one thing I wish for when parking is a longer space. I prefer to reverse into spaces, as visibility is better when driving out. Unfortunately, when you have a wheelchair in the boot, it is sometimes difficult to reverse in because of the lack of space to open the boot and get the chair out. I'm sure I'm not the only driver of an ordinary sized car (Nissan Note) who has this problem.

Yours is one of those cases that is not the norm and you have every right to park and off load in a disabled space.
It's those that park up in a disabled space and all get out including the disabled person who stands around chatting leaning on his stick then ambles off to the store. Clearly he could be dropped off at the doors and the car parked elsewhere to give someone more needy, like you are, the space.

Having a BB should not give an automatic right to a disabled space, people should use their common sense.

Then there are those that are clearly using 'mum's' BB. You see them - a couple of lads that then run off to the store and come back laden with cases of beer!

I actually challenged a mid 30's couple once who parked their Range Rover in a disabled space that my wife and I trying to reverse into. Their excuse was 'this space is bigger than the rest to get my car in and besides which I don't want it scratching - now f*** o**!!!'

Parva

Guys, I think you're all going off on a tangent with 'uponahill' and your own particular reasons why you may not be disabled but your passenger is or you may not have the blue badge. Ultimately, there will always be people that maybe don't 'look' disabled, they may suffer from agrophobia for all we know and that's fair enough, there's 1001 reasons why people need to be close to the supermarket doors.

However, it cannot be argued that there is widespread abuse of disabled parking bays at supermarkets whether the 'abuser' displays a blue badge or not. This is because the laws of the road and blue badges do not apply to supermarket car parks. Abusers of the blue badge on public roads are aware that they (and the blue badge holder him/herself) are subject to hefty fines and removal of said badge so you don't see abuse of it in your local council car park or double yellows. Supermarket car parks are not subject to the rules of the road and as such are there to be used, and most often, abused.

I'm with 'uponahill' with this in that I would willingly clamp anyone that parked in a disabled parking bay whilst not displaying a blue badge in the windscreen and worse yet, I would have someone perform random checks to make sure that the blue badge belonged to the holder or his/her passenger!

I waited 2 months for my blue badge and during that time managed to make do by either being dropped off at the door and my son then parking in a 'normal' spot or just parking in a normal spot and making the trek in the wheelchair. And I didn't have a split pelvis, I had most of my pelvis and my entire right leg removed.

Personally, if I were Mr Walmart (Asda - other good supermarkets are available and equally lax in this department) I would demand that all disabled spots require the clear display of an inspectable on request disabled card regardless of the "I haven't got my BB badge yet" brigade.

If you are deemed to need a blue badge then get the damned thing before you whine, it's no hardship to do without something you've never had before (even an entire leg long before I got the blue badge in my case).

Parva

LimeLight wrote: »

I eventually went via the traffic ramps.
The office is located on the 13th floor of a car park and the lift only goes as far as 11.

And apologies for missing this but please name and shame the council office that has this in place! If this is true then it's absolutely disgusting. I'm newly disabled and only now seeing things with a new view but you can't seriously be saying that you had to manually get to the 13th floor for your blue badge? I mean I thought it was bad enough having to prove that I was worthy but really???

WhiteHorse

Send this picture to Private Eye magazine, naming the council involved.

martianskies

Sometimes the assessors are just completely dimwitted. Best quote so far is 'but a powerchair counts as walking, all you have to do is push a joystick so your mobility isn't limited at all'. Muppetry of the highest order.