Parking On A Private Disabled Space

Monkey_Butler

One of my neighbours has a private disabled space outside their house (white box). Can I park in this space or is it illegal and could I receive a fine? He doesn't personally use it because he no longer owns a car, and only his visiting relatives seem to use it. Parking in our area is at a premium, so would be good to use it on the odd occasion. If he kicks off about phoning the police or something then I would quite like to know where I stand.

Redx

depends who "owns" the land and what laws (or rules) are in place for this "space" (if any)

if its a public road and the council have designated that space for the "disabled" (like the ones outside my doctors) then any signage etc should tell you who can park there , or the council can tell you if they own or maintain the road and space

best check with the council first , see if its theirs , see if its official , and see what rules (if any) are in force

Fruitcake

If the parking space is on private land, then anyone, disabled or not can use it, although it should morally only be used if an occupant of the car is disabled or has a condition covered by the Equality Act 2010.

If the space is on a public road, I believe it can only be used by a Blue Badge holder, but not exclusively the person who arranged to have it "installed."
If it is no longer required, it might be possible to get the Council to rescind the space and revert it back to free for all.

Monkey_Butler

Redx wrote: »

depends who "owns" the land and what laws (or rules) are in place for this "space" (if any)

if its a public road and the council have designated that space for the "disabled" (like the ones outside my doctors) then any signage etc should tell you who can park there , or the council can tell you if they own or maintain the road and space

best check with the council first , see if its theirs , see if its official , and see what rules (if any) are in force

It's a public road and it;s just a white box with 'DISABLED' written next to it, no sign posts or anything. He could have painted it himself for all I know (was thinking about doing one outside my own house if it guarantees me a space!)

Redx

one of the caveats here is that not long ago there was an article about one disabled person who had painted his own space on the road, so the council were not happy

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3927774/Driver-blue-badge-gets-75-fine-painting-disabled-parking-bay-outside-house.html

this is one reason I said check with the council , to make sure it is official , and see if they "own" it (like they do on most public and adopted roads"

for all we know , the disabled person may actually own this piece of land ?

but if its on the public road, the council will tell you the info you need , but if its "legit" then if a CEO comes around then a ticket will be issued

Quentin

If this is a normal public road, find out if the bay is "mandatory" or "advisory".


If the latter anyone can legally park there without fear of any legal repercussions (doesn't stop you coming back to flat/slashed tyres etc)

Monkey_Butler

Fruitcake wrote: »

I
If it is no longer required, it might be possible to get the Council to rescind the space and revert it back to free for all.

So if he no longer has a car I can phone the council and ask them to get rid of the space? The only time I see it getting used is when his family come to take him out. But it's only about once a fortnight and he's in a wheelchair so I'm sure they could push him a bit further to another parking spot.

Quentin

Yes, one of the conditions the space is provided is that a car the disabled person uses is kept at the address.

Monkey_Butler

Quentin wrote: »

Yes, one of the conditions the space is provided is that a car the disabled person uses is kept at the address.

Thanks for that, that's what I suspected.

Thinking about it, I might offer him a deal where I won't phone the council on the condition I get to use the space. He then lets me know when his family are coming round and I will let them have it for the day!

Quentin

You first need to establish what sort of space it is as in #6 before you park there

twhitehousescat

you will receive a parking ticket unless a blue badge is on display in the car ,