blue badge in private car parks

dave030445

Hi all quick question miss use of Blue badge in a private car park ie Tesco's can you have you Blue Badge taken of you for miss use or can that only happen on council property.

DomRavioli

1. They can't take it off you. They can however fine you as per the rules of private car parks.

2. It doesn't only happen on "council property". If you're found to be misusing a blue badge the issuing authority can take it off you regardless of where this happened. It is called fraud, and can in serious cases lead to possible prosecution, and knock on effects.

If you don't need your blue badge or are unable to adhere to the very basic terms and conditions give it back to the authority who issued it.

dave030445

DomRavioli wrote: »

1. They can't take it off you. They can however fine you as per the rules of private car parks.

2. It doesn't only happen on "council property". If you're found to be misusing a blue badge the issuing authority can take it off you regardless of where this happened. It is called fraud, and can in serious cases lead to possible prosecution, and knock on effects.

If you don't need your blue badge or are unable to adhere to the very basic terms and conditions give it back to the authority who issued it.

I was only asking as i see a lot of people where its obvious that the disabled driver waits in the car reading the newspaper parked in disabled bay and the passenger goes shopping. I was wondering who would have the authority to take the BB away from them.

Alter_ego

dave030445 wrote: »

I was only asking as i see a lot of people where its obvious that the disabled driver waits in the car reading the newspaper parked in disabled bay and the passenger goes shopping. I was wondering who would have the authority to take the BB away from them.

Why? It's a parking badge, not a shopping badge.

pogofish

Despite what the private parking companies claim on their signs, T&Cs etc, the Blue Badge Scheme has absolutely no validity on private property - this is made clear in the booklet that comes with your badge.

Its the Equality Act that applies here and that applies to all suitably disabled people regardless of badge. So no they can't take a badge off you specifically for anything done in a private car park but obvious abuse could be reported as a more general thing.

pogofish

Alter_ego wrote: »

Why? It's a parking badge, not a shopping badge.

No, the interpretation of the BB regs is that they are issued for the benefit of the holder, who should not be left sitting in the car whilst the able bodied person goes-off to shop.

Although it means little if anything on a private space, its probably safe to assume that anyone doing this is probably doing it on-street/regulated public parking as well.

Hastobe_Katt

Because that is against the rules. The badge is only to be used if the disabled person is leaving the vehicle...not for the convenience of the person accompanying the disabled person.

My concern is that, because the badge is displayed with the photograph face down, you cannot see who the badge is for (a failing I think on the blue badge rules but that's a different issue). While you can challenge someone not displaying a badge it's difficult to assess whether the badge is being abused. My advice would be to raise your concerns with the store as they are entitled to ask to see the badge. Our local Morrisons were fab and actually called the police over blue badge abuse - probably helped by the fact the manager is disabled himself.

tomtontom

Hastobe_Katt wrote: »

Because that is against the rules. The badge is only to be used if the disabled person is leaving the vehicle...not for the convenience of the person accompanying the disabled person.

My concern is that, because the badge is displayed with the photograph face down, you cannot see who the badge is for (a failing I think on the blue badge rules but that's a different issue). While you can challenge someone not displaying a badge it's difficult to assess whether the badge is being abused. My advice would be to raise your concerns with the store as they are entitled to ask to see the badge. Our local Morrisons were fab and actually called the police over blue badge abuse - probably helped by the fact the manager is disabled himself.

Why would Morrisons be entitled to see the badge? They're no more entitled than you or I.

(See pogifish's explanation above to clear up your misunderstanding.)

dave030445

Hastobe_Katt wrote: »

Because that is against the rules. The badge is only to be used if the disabled person is leaving the vehicle...not for the convenience of the person accompanying the disabled person.

My concern is that, because the badge is displayed with the photograph face down, you cannot see who the badge is for (a failing I think on the blue badge rules but that's a different issue). While you can challenge someone not displaying a badge it's difficult to assess whether the badge is being abused. My advice would be to raise your concerns with the store as they are entitled to ask to see the badge. Our local Morrisons were fab and actually called the police over blue badge abuse - probably helped by the fact the manager is disabled himself.

Only to see if you have a badge not to see the photo not that they can do alot if you say no. What can the police do as said before the BB has no validity in private car parks.

Richie-from-the-Boro

In a supermarket car park disabled BB holders can park in both disabled and non-disabled bays - but only disabled BB holders can park in a BB bay if [make reasonable adjustments for disabled people] they correctly display their Blue Badge.

Both the non-disabled and the disabled Blue badge holder can face liability of they break the terms & conditions clearly displayed in the car park.

For myself I'm all for a ruthless approach by supermarkets to enforce BB protection in their car parks. Aldi, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Lidl are already supposed to have been on board since 2011. The new BB has been out for years, a way should be found to share administration costs on the central dBase to reduce abuse.

NOTE - this opinion applies especially to all 2.55+ million badge holders in England if they break the terms & conditions clearly displayed in the supermarket car park, or the terms and conditions of being a blue badge holder.

pogofish

tomtontom wrote: »

Why would Morrisons be entitled to see the badge? They're no more entitled than you or I.

Yup - The number and kinds of people with a legal entitlement to inspect a blue badge is really rather small and it does not include supermarket staff, private parking goons, know-all taxi drivers or random have-a-go heroes. There is now a well established reporting mechanism for interested civilians to report suspected abuse that does not involve unpleasant/demeaning confrontations in the car park.

There is however nothing to stop a disabled person displaying or presenting their badge in support of their need for a suitably accessible space but strictly, under the act all they need to do is inform the operator verbally - and this includes after the fact if a ticket has been issued.