Ticketing Of Cars Displaying A Blue Budge On Private Land

Fergie76

Ok, I have been around here long enough to know that the blue badge scheme does not apply on private land.

Anyway, wife was at hospital last who has a valid blue badge. When we got there, there were no disabled spaces left, so just parked in a normal bay and displayed blue badge.

When I returned I had received a ticket. It turns out that only the disabled bays are free to park when displaying the badge.

I am going to wait for the notice to registered keeper, who is the wife as it's a disability car (she does not drive), then I will do a soft appeal and await a POPLA code.

My questions are:

1. Can/should they discriminate between disabled bays and normal bays, if they "accept" blue badges on their land?

2. BPA AOS Code Of Conduct says:

16.5

If your landowner provides a concession that allows parking for disabled people, if a vehicle displays a valid Blue Badge you must not issue it with parking charge notices.

So should they even have ticketed my car in the first place?

3. What is the best soft appeal, to hook them in to issuing a POPLA code?

The PPC was APCOA and they no longer call them Parking Charge Notices, but Parking Enforcement Notices.

Cheers.

Stroma

The code of practice is quite blunt, they MUST not issue fake tickets on cars displaying a valid blue badge, so it doesn't say whilst in a certain bay so its for the whole car park, So no they cannot discriminate.

I think any soft appeal will do, just pop them a copy of the badge and that little bit CoP if you wish and leave it at that. You know its going to be rejected in any case. And changing the name makes no difference, otherwise you could circumvent the whole CoP by doing that

atilla

And get the snotty letter to the NHS Trust CEO ready.

Fergie76

Stroma wrote: »

The code of practice is quite blunt, they MUST not issue fake tickets on cars displaying a valid blue badge, so it doesn't say whilst in a certain bay so its for the whole car park, So no they cannot discriminate.

I think any soft appeal will do, just pop them a copy of the badge and that little bit CoP if you wish and leave it at that. You know its going to be rejected in any case. And changing the name makes no difference, otherwise you could circumvent the whole CoP by doing that

He was actually still there and I told him this (bit in bold) and he was so oblivious. I know my job. This is private land. There was just no talking to him and I don't think it helped that he wasn't from these shores...(I don't mean to sound racist)

Coupon-mad

Do you think there are enough disabled bays there?

If they're very often full, displacing disabled visitors/patients to normal bays then I'd say the hospital is failing in its duty under the Equality Act 2010 to provide 'reasonable adjustments' to meet the needs of disabled service-users. And if the APCOA goon is then seeking to enable his employer firm APCOA to profit from this unlawfulness (and yes it's against the BPA Code of Practice to ticket a car with a Blue Badge displayed) then this is patently unfair and sharp practice by APCOA. Their car park operative should be the one reporting back to the Hospital if the disabled bay provision is insufficient - I know he won't, but legally he SHOULD - as he has a personal duty not to support discrimination against disabled people (just as much as the Hospital and their corporate agents have their duty under the Act).

I would write to the CEO of the Hospital from the stance that APCOA are out of order and the Hospital is failing in its Equality Act duties. Ask what % of the total bays are disabled bays and when this was last reviewed, since they have a lawful duty to revisit and improve 'reasonable adjustments' regularly to ensure compliance with the law. Ask what they are going to do in the meantime to stop their agent from profiting from displacement of disabled vehicles, bearing in mind that as well as being harassment of disabled people (illegal) ticketing Blue Badge holders is also a breach of the BPA CoP that APCOA are supposedly signed up to as an AOS member.

When you do your appeal to the first postal Notice to Keeper I would in fact make it a bit of a hard appeal. Include a copy of the Blue Badge and point out the BPA CoP breach and say that a complaint is already in with the Hospital Management as they and their agents are failing to address or take into account the underlying issue of lack of disabled bays. Demand a POPLA code or cancellation of the fake PCN. The reason I would do that is if they reject your challenge you can state in your POPLA appeal that the operative on site, and the appeals staff member, and the Hospital, have all been informed about the disability issue here and so this harassment is now a clear breach of the Equality Act 2010 as well as a breach of the BPA CoP.

I can help tweak your appeal wording if you need help at the time.

Fergie76

We are not native to the hospital as it is a specialist hospital, so I'm unsure about disabled bays ratio etc and if it is a major problem. But there certainly seemed to be a lack of disabled bays.

Thanks for the advice C-M and others.

HO87

Fergie76 wrote: »

We are not native to the hospital as it is a specialist hospital, so I'm unsure about disabled bays ratio etc and if it is a major problem. But there certainly seemed to be a lack of disabled bays.

Thanks for the advice C-M and others.

A quick FOI request should yield the details:

1. Number of publicly accessible parking spaces
2. Number of publicly accessible disabled spaces

IIRC there is a fixed percentage of spaces required - 6% rings bells (C-M?). This may have been trumped by planning permission which may well be available online - depending on the relevant council.

@C-M Your reply above was masterly. Like it

Fergie76

HO87 wrote: »

A quick FOI request should yield the details:

1. Number of publicly accessible parking spaces
2. Number of publicly accessible disabled spaces

IIRC there is a fixed percentage of spaces required - 6% rings bells (C-M?). This may have been trumped by planning permission which may well be available online - depending on the relevant council.

@C-M Your reply above was masterly. Like it

Just emailed off FOI request.

Thanks.

Fergie76

Had a response to the FOI Request and they have a ratio of about 9:1 of normal parking to disabled.

No. of chargable spaces - 481
No. of free disable spaces - 45
No. of chargable disable spaces - 6
Drop off - 4

Coupon-mad

Can't see how they can have a two-tier system of disabled bays with 6 of them chargeable? Unless they are the staff ones maybe and all staff might need to pay for parking which is fair if it buys all day parking.

But the % is quite good - although you'd expect a hospital to have a fair number of disabled bays of course. BUT if they are always full the provision is not enough - trouble is you can't check that point.

I would just do the usual and wait for the Notice to Keeper then check it for non-compliance before firing off a simple challenge from (you) the registered keeper, not saying or implying who was driving.

Fergie76

The chargable spaces are in a barriered (sp?) multi-story car park.

The wife is the registered keeper (disabled car, she doesn't drive), but yeah will do appeal and await POPLA code.