Private parking fine

Delta101

Hi there 

I have been reading through past threads to get an idea of things. I haven't found a query exactly the same as mine but it seems we are all under similar diabolical tactics.

In short, I parked at a FREE B&M carpark and it seems that I forgot one day to put my Blue Badge on display. I sent them a copy of my Blue Badge and pointed out it is a FREE carpark!

They have got back to me and said they are still correct but want a goodwill gesture of £20. This is reduced from £170 (with apparently no right to appeal)

Popla has been mentioned in a paragraph thick with absolute nonsense. 

Any advice is greatly appreciated. 

Fruitcake

It is not a fine.

The Blue Badge scheme does not apply on private land, but the Equality Act 2010 does. 

Please tell us the name of the unregulated parking company and the location of the event.

Failing to anticipate the needs of a disabled person with protected characteristics as defined by the Act is indirect discrimination, a breach of the Act, and a criminal offence. 
Failing to make reasonable adjustments after being made aware a person with disabilities who has protected characteristics is direct discrimination, a further breach of the Act, and a separate criminal offence.

Requiring a person with disabilities who has protected characteristics do something that an able bodied person without protected characteristics is not required to do discrimination, a breach of the Act, and a criminal offence.

An absence of Blue Badge does not mean an absence of disability, nor an absence of legal requirement to comply with the Act.
Not everyone with a disability who has protected characteristics has a Blue Badge. 


I suggest you complain to the store manager and the CEO, and your MP, and remind them of the law.

It would also be useful if you and other motorists highlighted the above in the government consultation, otherwise a new mandatory parking code of conduct might be introduced that itself breaches the Equality Act 2010 unless the requirement to display a Blue Badge is made optional, not mandatory.
The parking industry has had nearly fifteen years to come up with a solution to this, and was reminded of it at the last consultation years ago, as was the former government.

Coupon-mad

Delta101 said:

Hi there 

I have been reading through past threads to get an idea of things. I haven't found a query exactly the same as mine but it seems we are all under similar diabolical tactics.

In short, I parked at a FREE B&M carpark and it seems that I forgot one day to put my Blue Badge on display. I sent them a copy of my Blue Badge and pointed out it is a FREE carpark!

They have got back to me and said they are still correct but want a goodwill gesture of £20. This is reduced from £170 (with apparently no right to appeal)

Popla has been mentioned in a paragraph thick with absolute nonsense. 

Any advice is greatly appreciated. 

Complain to B&M telling them that it's illegal to demand a £20 fee from a disabled person for cancelling a PCN (which is in itself a 'reasonable adjustment' - the action of cancelling the charge afterwards - saying 'but pay us an admin fee that's not on the signs').

If this £20 is allowed by the government then DRAs will also charge it to consumers for cancelling disputed cases at pre-action stage. That cannot be allowed to happen and in the case of disabled people it is illegal to charge them for using an accessible bay.

Effectively, this is what they're doing but this approach breaches the Equality Act 2010: service providers are not allowed to charge money for 'reasonable adjustments' and it's also specifically illegal under that Act, to harass a person for reasons connected to their protected characteristics. This means it is illegal.

Tell B&M this and insist they step in to stop this harassment of a disabled shopper by their agents.