Carer in disabled bay parking but forgot to display blue badge

savergrant

Half_way said:

The blue badge scheme does not apply on private land, however it can be used to show that an occupant of a vehicle has a protected characteristic and needs to use/make a reasonable adjustment to use the facilities.

The correct course of action is that as soon as the so-called parking company.is made aware that the vehicle was left as it was to make use of said adjustments , the parking charge would be cancelled immediately.

 But the alleged parking company just wants to make money, and disabled people and their carers are easy prey.

As the "court process" has started you need to follow the advice above, however you also need to get in touch with the landowner and tell them what has happened m you need to add in that the actions of the parking company are putting the landowner at risk of breaching the equality act and that the landowner needs to instruct ( not ask) the parking company to discontinue the legal action that they are taking against you, and you need to remind them that they are jointly liable for the actions of their agents ( the parking company)

Often, the excuse used is that they can not cancel as debt collection and/or court proceedings have been initiated, this is nonsense as a claimant can discontinue/withdraw at any time unto a hearing ( and possibly just before a judgement is made) so you will need to counter that in a landowner complaint and instruction ( not a request do not beat around the bush) to cancel hence the word discontinue.

Parking companies are not regulated, they make up their own rules to suit themselves - and to make money they could state that only magenta coloured cars can park in certain bays and you parked a red car in one of those bays so you owe £100 in a "parking charge notice" likewise with other over things such as parking in a disabled bay with a tyre slightly touching the line, or a disabled driver parking across two bays as they need extra room to get in/out and nothing else is available and so on.

 The mitigating factors you suggested wont mean a thing - but you do have the equality act to bash them, and the landowner with

So if I run a car park and have spaces designated as 'disabled' how do I regulate checking whether someone is entitled to use them? Or, putting it another way, how would I demonstrate I was entitled to use a space as someone who requires reasonable adjustments due to a disability? After all it's not in my interests for there to be no spaces available because there is nothing to stop people who do not require adjustments from using those spaces anyway.

In an ideal world everyone would be far too considerate to think of parking in a disabled space if they didn't really need to, but let's say some people are inconsiderate enough to do exactly that.

Coupon-mad

Checking of these bays should be done on foot - ideally by the retailer not a scammer relying on 'revenue' - and with windscreen PCNs applied immediately to alert drivers (not sent to the keeper/lease firm by post two weeks later).

That way, if a genuine disabled person got a PCN they could trot straight into the premises and prove their entitlement.

Which may or may not be a Blue Badge.

swebb99

Coupon-mad said:

Checking of these bays should be done on foot - ideally by the retailer not a scammer relying on 'revenue' - and with windscreen PCNs applied immediately to alert drivers (not sent to the keeper/lease firm by post two weeks later).

That way, if a genuine disabled person got a PCN they could trot straight into the premises and prove their entitlement.

Which may or may not be a Blue Badge.

Yes that's what I said to M&S when I found out but they said it was nothing to do with them.

I thought me demonstrating we had a blue badge would sort everything out, but no.

As for the landowner I tried to find out who they are. I asked some of the retailers and they only knew about the parking company. I eventually found it was in a London funds hands but it had been sold on elsewhere but then I couldn't find anything more.

Gr1pr

But the actual entity that contracted with the parking company is the landlord or managing agents,  so companies like Savills etc.  They are the best people to complain to,  the ones with the power to cancel the PCN,  because they run the site on a daily basis,  on behalf of the arms length landowners 

Victims tend to focus on the parking company and the retailer,  instead of the landlord or agents 

swebb99

Thanks @Gr1pr, any idea how I find out who is the landlord or managing agent ?

Coupon-mad

swebb99 said:

Thanks @Gr1pr, any idea how I find out who is the landlord or managing agent?

It's on a sign at the entrance.

Not a PPC sign!

swebb99

Hi Just a bit of an update. Its coming up to a year and I've been getting calls every week or couple of weeks from the parking company which on the few occasions I've accepted the call have only ever sent me through to someone asking for money. 

I've looked at the case details on the money claim online site and the last entry was when i filled my defence on the 26/02/25.

I'm not sure what to expect next. I'm still looking after my mother who nowdays is even more confused.

It's is worth mentioning that recently I forgot to display the blue badge again but on a public road. The police accepted my defence when I gave them details of the blue badge.

Cheers

Gr1pr

I doubt that the parking company chased it, more likely to be DCB LEGAL 

Strange that its stagnated for 12 months 

It should have mentioned the N180 stage,  then because mediation has happened it should have gone to your local civil court 

The public road one is irrelevant 

swebb99

Yes the mediation happened on the 25/3/25 and I said I wasn't paying.

The claim has the following statuses:

A claim was issued against you on 14/01/2025

Your defence was submitted on 16/01/2025 at 17:41:34

Your defence was received on 17/01/2025 at 08:05:38

DQ sent to you on 18/02/2025

DQ filed by claimant on 18/02/2025

You filed a DQ on 26/02/2025

On the last call I accepted the other person on the call asked if would accept paying £100 which I said I wouldn't. They then went quiet for a few seconds and said they would accept I think it was £20 or £30 to cover their costs. I explained that I had offered a compelling defence that I actually had a blue badge and mentioned the equality act. She seemed to imply that they agreed but not in so many words and said they were just asking for the money to cover costs. I explained the costs were down to them not accepting my original defence and I was not paying. That was probably a few months ago. I've had several calls since but I've never answered them.

Coupon-mad

Sit tight and do nothing unless you move house.