Disabled parking bays

[baldowrie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6167388.stm

Hope it goes through!

[Merry]

Yep!
Two things I`ve noticed around here though - both involving misuse of disabled parking permits.I was offered a lift into town by an allotment neighbour and was amazed when he parked in a `disabled` spot and pulled out a permit with his name & picture on it. "I got this when I had my bad leg and I`m not bloody well giving it back." he smirked, before striding strongly away.
And an ex colleague of mine routinely uses her late mother`s pass. The name`s the same and the picture is similar enough!
Blooming infuriating!

[baldowrie]

believe it is also a criminal offence too!

In Scotland the disabled have unlimited parking in area they can park. In England it's/was up to 3 hours. The unlimited is very handy if you go into say to see a show, you don't have to pop out and move the car.

The main bug bear for those of us that have blue badge, legitimately, is the number of lazy buggers parked in the very nearest of disabled bays cause it's raining or they are 'oh only popping in quickly'. We are often subject to abusive language regarding these bays and appalling driving sense (nip in quick before the cripple does).

We have been asking for years for them to be policed and occasionally the supermarkets have done it, to which I always say thank you. But at present the bays are only courtesy and not compulsory. If this goes through hopefully the rest of the country will follow Scotlands lead.

[red]

I know a group of people who put 'be careful what you wish for' stickers on the cars parked in disabled bays without blue badge.

[baldowrie]

When I was in my wheelchair my mother used to 'park' me in front of any offending vehicle if any one was it it.

Do you know people can avoid eye contact for only so long before they have to move

[PurpleDragon]

I thought it was illegal to park in disabled bays! Shows what I know!

This is actually one of my bugbears - it drives me nuts to see able bodied folk leap out of cars parked in disabled bays and saunter off. I always give them filthy looks. I challenged someone once who parked in a disabled bay who was obviously not disabled and she said "oh, my son is disabled and he is sitting in the car waiting for me".

Another bugbear is folk parking in the parent and child spaces. They are wider so you can get the door open wider and get your kid into its car seat. I was at the supermarket today and the wife parked next to me (in this space) didn't have any kids with her. And people think they can park in those spaces, leave the kids and their minder in the car, and go into the shops. That isn't the flippin point!

[baldowrie]

If you hold a blue badge and you use it to park you are not supposed to sit in the car whilst the able bodied person gets out and leaves you behind...you can get a parking ticket for doing that.

[Pilsbury]

I agree that these should be enforced but i would like to mention thet a lot of people who qualify for a blue badge could look and act prefectly well when they pull up.
My friend is registered disabled as she has huge problems resulting from surgery on both legs but at the moment for about 60% of the time she is able to operate normally but the other 40% varies from slight limping in one or both legs to using a wheelchair till the pain goes. she can have attacks quite suddenly so it isnt safe for her to use an normal bay on a good day.
Also I know people are supposed to carry the badges with them but saveral times in the last year i have had to use my car to take another termanally ill friend places while his wife was at work and sometimes she forgot to leave the passes, I had to use disabled bays some of the time and i didnt have passes.
I totaly agree that disabled bays should be enforced but it must be open to appeal and reason.

[the.fee.fairy]

The only issue i have with this happened earlier this year - my dad broke his leg and couldn't get about, and my sister had a lump removed from the top of her leg (it was huge!!), so whenever my mum had to take them anywhere, she'd try to park in large bays. She coudln't get a temporary disabled pass (which would have been great - dad was in a wheelchair and my sister had crutches, and getting either of them out in a normals size bay was nigh-on impossible!). After a week, she started parking in disabled bays and leaving a note saying 'daughter with walking difficulties, husband with broken leg'.

One day, after they's been doing whatever they were doing, someone yelled at my mum for parking there. She had my dad in the wheelchair, and my sister following! The person who yelled at them was a blue badge abuser, they were moving about fine.

So, maybe sometimes, if you see a car in a disabled bay that doesn't have a badge it might be that there is someone with walking difficulties who can't get anything to show it.

But, i do get annoyed at non-disabled people who use the spaces! (i mean, permanently, i do class anyone with broken legs/walking difficulties as temporarily disabled)

[Tensing]

Please remember that not every one who has a blue badge has a visable disability.

My youngest has a blue badge, and we once had a woman really go for us in street when we parked in a disabled space (which we are allowed to do). She even called a traffic warden over, who thankfully sided with us. The best bit is there were two other empty disabled spaces and this woman wasn't even disabled or in a car.

[pskipper]

Please remember that not every one who has a blue badge has a visable disability.

My aunt has arthritis and can't walk far, on short distances you wouldn't think she was disabled but the further she goes the less able to walk she gets, hence she gets a disabled badge so she can park close enough to shops to be able to get around. As for the abusers it really is dispicable and I'm glad to say that I've never done it even though it does mean driving round carparks cursing until I finally find a place

[monkeynuts]

My eldest son is registered disabled but, as yet, doesn't have a blue badge. During a recent visit to hospital to have an operation on his ankle (the 22nd op he's had on his leg) I had no option but to write a note and leave it on the dashboard so I could park close enough for him.
We have never abused disabled parking bays as such but when he was in his wheelchair I once parked outside a supermarket and left a note. When I returned I had a snotty letter from the trolley collector on my windscreen. I pushed my wheelchair bound 5year old (at the time) to him and gave him a peice of my mind. This was before parent and child places were available and I really struggled to get him into and out of the car in an ordinary space. And don't even get me started on DLA!!
In 21 years I have struggled to (financially) look after my son we haven't managed to claim anything, even when I had to give up work to look after him. He is applying again so fingers crossed. One of the things that used to aggrevate me, particularly when he was younger was the tin shaking, 'help disabled children' brigade. Because we lived in Durham and his specialist was in Sunderland I struggled to get a wheelchair from either so I used to have to rent one from the Red Cross. I have never had any financial help from anywhere so I really don't know who these 'disabled children' are that they collect for so I used to glare at the collectors and reply...'got one thanks!!!' my son thought it was funny!

[baldowrie]

Monkeynuts, don't give up at the first refusal for DLA.

It took 5 years to get it for my son and the most recent claim they turned down again!

So very determinedly I decided this time it was tribunal with me ranting. Any way I wrote back with all the evidence I sent first time stating I wanted to go for appeal but they didn't go to appeal.

Unusually they changed their mind!

and for the FULL 3 years

Now he does not have formal diagnoses, just complex needs.

[monkeynuts]

My son was born with inoperable congenital equivarus talipes(sp) but to me and you that's severe club foot that just won't do as it's told when the surgeon tries to puit it in a 'normal' position!!

He finds any walking uncomfortable at best and some days can't walk at all outside. His left leg/foot is severly lacking in any muscle structure and he has also been diagnosed with osteoparosis in his leg/foot bones. This caused real problems when trying to diagnos his recently broken ankle!! It took the radiographer 5 attempts to see his bones!

This said he tries to lead a normalish life and drives an ordinary car. He has recently failed his PCV licence but is going to try again asap. He is very limited in what work he can do too but he is trying. The DLA don't seem to take much of this into account but we will definately keep trying this time.

baldowrie did you have any help filing in your forms? they are quite daunting.

[baldowrie]

Monkeynuts I will PM to avoid filling up this thread