Parking with a blue badge when looking "normal.."

samtoby

Lum wrote: »

How will this stop able-bodied people from borrowing their grandparent's blue badge and abusing it?

Yes, I totally get that, have dealt with invisible illness for long enough. The wheelchair is a very recent addition to our lives.
Got pretty much this problem with my partner's 200SX, though the wheelchair then makes an appearance alongside the drivers door and the people disappear suddenly. I can well see how much abuse you'd get in that situation.

What we sometimes used to do on low spoons days is I'd drop her off at the drop off point and then go park normally, and if she was on her own it would literally be come straight home and get me to do the shopping or whatever.

I agree that the general public have no right to ask, which I was specifically asking about car park attendants and vehicles with no BB.

This seems to be the default mode of operation for supermarkets and the like, yes. I'm not saying that they are required to police their own bays, just that it may be (or may not be) a good thing to do.
The contracts are pretty much unenforcible anyway, as seen on any thread in the parking tickets forum. Punative penalty clauses are not allowed, they can only reclaim actual losses incurred, so for a free car park that would be zero, unless they can provide proof that a disabled person showed up, couldn't park, left without buying anything and didn't come back later for another attempt.

The badges have pictures on them (the new ones) starting January this year.

Lum

samtoby wrote: »

The badges have pictures on them (the new ones) starting January this year.

"I'm picking up my grandmother from inside"

tronlegacy

samtoby wrote: »

The badges have pictures on them (the new ones) starting January this year.

My sons blue badge has always had his picture on it.Did not know this was a new thing.

mazza111

The badges have had pictures on them for years. They are on the opposite side from the one that's displayed. Just replaced my mother's and the picture is still on the back.

I am still waiting to be asked to show the pic by a traffic warden and have the wrong one on display (always carry my daughter's and mother's and leave them in the car). Tempting to put both up when I take them both out together

I take offence at the way the shop assistant asked about the bb, if a shop assistant in the car park asked to see my BB then I would have no qualms whatsoever in showing it to them. If they asked if I was going to start limping now, I would report them. If Soapn or Tod questioned me, I'd tell them to f off I'm afraid

Lum

mazza111 wrote: »

I take offence at the way the shop assistant asked about the bb, if a shop assistant in the car park asked to see my BB then I would have no qualms whatsoever in showing it to them. If they asked if I was going to start limping now, I would report them. If Soapn or Tod questioned me, I'd tell them to f off I'm afraid

This is exactly what I was trying to get at with my line of questions on the previous page, and the "oh aye! so what's your disability then?" comment. Thank you!

Stephen_Leak

Of course, private parking tickets are unenforceable, but the discussion here is about what happens long before things get to that stage.

ASDA do seem to be checking tax discs, to see if they are for "disabled" VED. However, it could be argued that this is still tantamount to disabled drivers having to ring a hand bell and shout, "Unclean".

But, if a supermarket had a member of staff even just checking the bays, they could, from comments on here, easily find themselves in a conflict situation.

We can't have it both ways.

Lum

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

ASDA do seem to be checking tax discs, to see if they are for "disabled" VED. However, it could be argued that this is still tantamount to disabled drivers having to ring a hand bell and shout, "Unclean".

This is also problematic. The tax disc rules are a lot stricter than the rules for BB holders, so in the case where a car is shared between an able bodied person and a BB holder, it may well be the case that the car could not legally be put in the disabled class.

But, if a supermarket had a member of staff even just checking the bays, they could, from comments on here, easily find themselves in a conflict situation.

We can't have it both ways.

Exactly... so where is the middle ground?

missile

Lum wrote: »

It's a tricky one, particularly in those first few months after becoming disabled, where you're still waiting for your blue badge. Is it reasonable for a car park attendant to challenge someone using a disabled bay who does not appear to be disabled and does not (yet) have a blue badge?

IMHO, one should not use a blue badge bay unless you display the badge. IMHO, I am waiting for a badge to be issued is not acceptable. Attendants should challenge anyone who does not display a badge. It is reasonable to challenge anyone who appears to be physically fit. Particularly those whose face does not match that displayed on the badge.

Lum

missile wrote: »

IMHO, one should not use a blue badge bay unless you display the badge. IMHO, I am waiting for a badge to be issued is not acceptable. Attendants should challenge anyone who does not display a badge. It is reasonable to challenge anyone who appears to be physically fit. Particularly those whose face does not match that displayed on the badge.

Ok, so in the 3 months it took for the local council to issue our blue badge, how do you propose that my partner ensure that nobody parks so close as to restrict her wheelchair access, or should she have just not gone to work for those 3 months?

What actually happened is she came to a special arrangement with the multistory by her work, but this isn't always feasible. For everything else she had to rely on me, and sometimes we'd cause a lovely jam in the car park if I had to roll the car 2/3rds of the way out of it's space to make room for the chair to get in.

Richie-from-the-Boro

tronlegacy wrote: »

My sons blue badge has always had his picture on it.Did not know this was a new thing.

The new badge

will continue to have a picture oin the reverse as it did previously - this time it will be digitised.