New Blue Badge anti-fraud measures

golddustmedia

Not sure how I feel about charging Blue badge holders in car parks.

I mean, I agree with disabled spaces to assist disabled drivers and make their lives easier, but I also feel that the assistance is a reserved space in prime position, not necessarily free parking. After all, everybody else has to pay to park. Surely the scheme is there to help disabled drivers park, not save them money?

keefyboy_2

I see above that someone said about Enforcable bays in Supermarkets, it's nice to use the bays, but the supermarkets are going to have to look at their allocation of bays and the siting of their cash machines. Here in Porthmadog Tesco has a lot of bays in front of the store, but at the end of the bays is the 2 cash machines, so what happens is that people who want just money out, park in the disabled bays so they are near the machines, I have challenged a couple of them to get verbally abused, threatened and god knows what else. There I am in a wheelchair, how can I try and stop them. They did have a car park warden who enforced the rules because of lack of parking people used to park in tescos and walk into the town, he was forced to give the job up because he was verbally and actually abused by some stupid people who are spoilling it for everybody. Tesco will now no longer put a parking attendant out because of the health and safety considerations for their employees (which I can understand and agree with), so the cash seekers now just do what they want, their answer when you say something "Well I'm only going to be a couple of minutes"... need I say anymore...

TOBRUK

golddustmedia wrote: »

My mother in law uses a wheelchair and we often find people abusing the disabled bays.

A couple of weeks ago a family pulled into the space next to us while we were unloading the wheelchair. The mum obviously wasn't happy and said something to her husband who blurted out "well she's disabled, look at her arm", referring to his daughter.

His excuse for using a disabled bay? His teenage daughter had her arm in a sling, obviously from some simple mishap or fall.

Once they went into the restaurant they were parked outside we took the liberty of applying fluorescent "dont abuse disabled parking bays" stickers on his windscreen

It is very annoying when something like this happens, I get a little angry when I see this sort of thing happening and whenever I park I have a habit of looking at windscreens of cars parked in disabled bays to see wheher they have a disabled badge, but you were brave to place a sticker on their car ... what if they saw you and things got nasty? I'm not sure I could do this.

gg8029

I'm going to stick my neck out and admit to being an occasional rogue disabled bay user..

I feel it's totally fine if you don't take one of the closer ones and there are many additional disabled spaces.. for example when popping to 24hr tesco...

Fran

The problem with supermarkets is that it is not enforceable. Parking other than on private place is an offence and there's no question. If people think they can 'get away with it' then they will.

From Direct.gov website:

"Blue Badge parking bays

It is an offence to park a vehicle which is not displaying a badge in a Blue Badge parking bay. If you see this, you should report it to a traffic warden (or parking enforcement officer), the local police or the local council (who are responsible for issuing badges).

Police officers, traffic wardens, local authority parking attendants and civil enforcement officers have the right to inspect Blue Badges. It is an offence to refuse or fail to produce a badge for inspection, without reasonable excuse. This offence carries a maximum fine of £1,000.


'Off-street' disabled parking bays such as supermarkets

Most disabled persons' parking bays in off-street car parks - for example, supermarket car parks - are not covered by Blue Badge scheme regulations.

Car parks and parking bays like these are likely to be privately owned and managed by the individual business. The agreement, and any cost to use them, will be between the owner and the motorists/customers.

If you are a disabled motorist (or passenger) and you complain to, for example, a supermarket that a non-disabled motorist has parked in a disabled bay, an employee of the store could ask the driver to move their car from the disabled bay but they will not be in a position to legally insist on it.

If you think that people are unfairly parking in disabled bays, speak or write to the management of the store or car park.

The government (Department for Transport) supports 'Baywatch' - a partnership between several major supermarkets and disability organisations - including the Disabled Drivers' Association. The campaign aims to end the abuse of parking bays put aside for disabled drivers' use."

Yogibear

I was a police traffic warden for 19 years now retired this new scheme will not work this thing about the code number telling you the sex of the driver it is like that at the moment ie if you look at the letter at the number you will see M or F , Driver or Passenger or B for blind,in my experience police traffic wardens have the power to ask to see the badge but people can say they have just dropped off the disabled passenger and are parking up.

The police were not interested`to much hassle`the senior traffic wardens
were not interested `to much hassle`and the local authorities couldnt do anything as they need the information,as I go about my business now you can see that a lot of badges are not originals by the shade of blue in the wheelchair logo,what we used to find that a minority of holders would abuse the system by saying their badges were lost or stolen and get replacements for their family/friends disgusting I know but some people have no morals.

before I finish this a word of warning police traffic wardens can issue endorsable fines for stopping on pedestrian crossing ie zig zags even if you drive away and don`t get a ticket you will be reported !! 3 penalty points and £60? so if you drop some one off double park,stop anywhere except for zig zags crazy system I know

Alykes

As usual this problem only arises from the selfishness and bloody mindedness of people who really don't give a damn for anyone but themselves. My wife has a blue badge and the main problem is definitely in supermarket car parks.
No, we don't have to pay in most, but that wouldn't really be a problem. We'd be happy to pay if we could park in a disabled spot, but they are usually taken by anyone but disabled people. Fine the lot of them heavilly!!

kags

Not sure how I feel about charging Blue badge holders in car parks.

I mean, I agree with disabled spaces to assist disabled drivers and make their lives easier, but I also feel that the assistance is a reserved space in prime position, not necessarily free parking. After all, everybody else has to pay to park. Surely the scheme is there to help disabled drivers park, not save them money?

But the point is that other people may have a choice about how they travel e.g. by bus or on foot. The disabled person's only option may be by car: so they've already got that expense - it's only helping to further level the playing field in terms of cost.

I'm going to stick my neck out and admit to being an occasional rogue disabled bay user..

I feel it's totally fine if you don't take one of the closer ones and there are many additional disabled spaces.. for example when popping to 24hr tesco...

I can't even begin to formulate a polite reply ... it's like those that are "just popping in for 5 mins" - but that might be the same 5 mins that someone else really, really needs that space!!

roddydogs

TOBRUK wrote: »

These aren't new powers - I was a traffic warden back in 1987 (for all my sins) and I used to challenge people back then when they were orange badges!

Not sure about showing the picture ... perhaps risky in that it could lead to identity theft with too much information on the badge.

Like this idea

My renewal for blue badge is up now so when I get my new one it will be interesting to see the changes that have been made :rolleyes:

you are totally wrong -the new powers were introduced at the beginning of this year-if you challenged people before this you had
NO power to do this-im not saying you didnt do it-im just saying you had no power to do it!!

Poppycat

Dont make the mistake that the blue badge is for the driver, its for the holder only that can be the driver or a passenger as is the case with us, its for my 16 year old daughter.

I get fed up of finding a disabled space because there either full or the system is being abused.

Supermarkets are a particularly problem the main culprits are Tesco's and Morrisons. As for Tesco's I regularly see it being abused by young drivers who want to use the cash machine or go for the cheap booze.

I wish that people who abused the system got there cars towed, perhaps then we actually see people who abuse the system think twice.