Disabled car park.

The sign caught my eye outside Home Bargains at North Durham Retail Park - the other side of Arnison Centre, where Aldi is, for those familiar with the area.

I am disabled,in a wheelchair and completely rely on my blue badge. They are very difficult to obtain and have to be renewed on a regular basis. I don't think people are being malicious when they park in a disabled spot. They just can't imagine what it must be like to be elderly and frail. Perhaps an advert on television might make it clearer along with a warning about the heavy fines that can be imposed.

Georgesgran

AND what on Earth does this mean:-

Very odd...
Did you ask?

Where was that picture taken Georgesgran? It’s a strange sign!

No one should park in a disabled bay if they haven't got a blue badge. I would gladly give up my blue badge if I could exchange it for being able bodied and live without pain and exhaustion.

People don't always look disabled but different disabilities cause different suffering. There has been many times I have been so grateful for a disabled parking space, if you can get
one , otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get where I need to go. So if you haven't got a blue badge and you're in good health be grateful for what you've got .

AND what on Earth does this mean:-

My local retail park has quite a large Next with all of the disabled parking for that side of the park outside the front doors. Visible from the Costa upstairs, we sit and watch the able-bodied take those spaces to wander in to return their various parcels and/or pick up the next lot.
It’s ironic that cameras posted on the park’s entrances time a car’s length of stay (fines apply for overstaying) but there are no boots on the ground to issue tickets to these selfish, entitled, lazy people!

Blossoming

Nobody should park in a disabled space unless they have a blue badge. If you are not disabled being unable to park where you want is an inconvenience. If I can’t park in a disabled space it means I can’t go where I need to go.

I am the same blossoming. Having a Blue Badge means I can still get out and about, without ending up in pain and exhausted.

Walk or not a day in my shoes comes to mind.

Nobody should park in a disabled space unless they have a blue badge. If you are not disabled being unable to park where you want is an inconvenience. If I can’t park in a disabled space it means I can’t go where I need to go.

This morning, although there were plenty of mother and child spaces free, a young mother parked in the only free disabled space, no badge displayed.
Why? Because it was next to Lidl and she wouldn't have to walk any distance.

Totally entitled. 🤬

why would you park in a disabled spot if you are not disabled. I have many times gone shopping only to find the disabled bays all full and the first parking space available is too far for me to walk so I have had to drive straight back home.

I am disabled but not a driver . Had a disabled badge since it was orange in 1988. For many years when the children were very young I went in my wheelchair as it was the only way we could go out as a family because I could walk a short distance with my stick to and from the car to get in and out and our children were 4 and 6 months.

If I didn't go out with my husband he parked in a normal bay. But when I was with him and the children we parked in a disabled bay with my badge and timer on the window ledge. One time my husband's was about to park in a bay a man drove in . My husband shouted my wife's disabled ,he said only be minute and ran into the shop . So my husband parked the car the back of this chaps car. Put my badge on and he got out my wheelchair as he was doing it a security guard told my husband he couldn't park there so he explained what happened. Our car wasn't obstructing and other cars just this one. So we went into the shopping centre . 3 hours later we got back to our car and the other driver flew out of his car and had a go . After a few choice words where exchanged my husband said he hoped he had learnt his lesson.

After my husband died I still renewed my badge for when I went out with my parents , children or friends. After 10 years I could walk bit longer distances and didn't need my chair .

Blue badges are not easy to get nowadays as they have tighten up the rules and you have to prove how far you can walk without pain or breathlessness.

What really annoys is not only non disabled parking in bays but those people put the clock badge thinking that means something.

But some disabilities are not visible but if that person has there photo on the badge then they are entitled to use it.

So the answer to the OP unless you or your passenger has a blue disabled badge do not park in a disabled bay doesn't matter if it's on tarmac or grass , concrete or sand .

It's quite strictly controlled when you apply for a blue badge. I can't get one even though I have lung disease and really struggle trying to walk up hills and steps. I'm very breathless and have to keep stopping. Because I can walk better on level ground I'm not eligible for a badge.
So nobody should park in a disabled space as the blue badge is for severely disabled people.

M0nica

I would make one comment about the problem of being someone who on occasion gives someone who is disabled a lift to various locations. I need to use the facility of a disabled parking space, but do not have a badge.

I usually get round this by pulling up outside the venue, regardless of double yellow lines etc, helping the person out of the car then abandoning them with their walker on the pavement while I go and park where I am permitted to and then walking back to accompany them into the building. and doing the reverse procedure when we come out.

M0nica the blue badge belongs to the person, not the car and goes with them. So it is perfectly possible and legitimate for you to display that badge and park in a disabled space when they are your passenger.

The difficulty I have with a family member who is disabled, but not disabled enough to qualify for a blue badge is that he often needs to have the car door wide open to be able to get in and out and most car park spaces are not big enough, especially of your car is hemmed in by 2 of those great big gas guzzling tanks, sorry, cars that so many people feel they need these days.

The alternative is to park far enough back in the car park that double spaces are available - but that means the disabled person has to walk much further.

^ I have parked in mother and baby slots, with permission from the supermarket, and received verbal abuse from able -bodied parents because they can't park close to the store.^

Mother and baby slots have nothing to do with disability, though. There is more [space between the parked cars to enable the adult with the child or children to get them in and out safely and to manoeuvre child seats or pushchairs.

I'd never park in a disabled space or a mother and child space.

You obviously don’t realise what it’s like to be disabled. I have to wait a year for a hip replacement. It’s so painful to try to walk. Please take our parking spaces. Both my husband and I have blue badges. He has a lung condition. He has never smoked but has a condition that affects miners. People who work with asbestos etc so having half of the usual lung capacity makes life difficult for him too, so please don’t take our parking spaces if you are well. Thank you.

I would never park in a disabled spot although it is infuriating when they are empty in busy carparks. I have parked in mother and baby slots, with permission from the supermarket, and received verbal abuse from able -bodied parents because they can't park close to the store. Felt no guilt about that whatsoever.

Kircubbin, why would you think it's ok to take a parking spot reserved for someone with a disability!? These designated parking places are a god send to those who need them . If people who really need these spaces and arrive to discover the parking spot is taken by someone who
doesn't need it - is that reasonable - no it isn't! Just be thankful you are able bodied and don't rely on these designated parking spaces. Please think again !

I do that at the hospital and ask a porter to take my friend on in.

I would make one comment about the problem of being someone who on occasion gives someone who is disabled a lift to various locations. I need to use the facility of a disabled parking space, but do not have a badge.

I usually get round this by pulling up outside the venue, regardless of double yellow lines etc, helping the person out of the car then abandoning them with their walker on the pavement while I go and park where I am permitted to and then walking back to accompany them into the building. and doing the reverse procedure when we come out.

would this have been a sin 😂😂😂 Hilarious.
That was a joke, wasn’t it?

Supposing shortly after you parked people had begun to gather at the disabled park for an event for people with disability and someone couldn't park and enjoy an opportunity to get out because you were parked there?

“The disabled spaces were full of cars, with no disabled badges on display”……..really annoying isn’t it Marydoll! I used to volunteer for a local charity which was located in County Council premises…….I could never park in the disabled bays because they were always full of cars with no blue badge displayed. One of the vehicles was being renovated by someone living next door to the centre who had no workshop to put it in!

Yesterday, I couldn't get parked in a disabled space, or anywhere else for that matter, when I went to try to pick up my prescriptions.
The disabled spaces were full of cars, with no diabled badges on display. The majority of those parked, were picking up their able bodied children from the local sports centre.
It also happens all the time at our local Sainsbury's.
Sheer entitlement or laziness?