Blue Badge Rant

Oh dear.

My father would take my mother for drives. A relative would help him get her n and out of the car at home, but he was unable to even get her into a wheelchair by himself so they would park with their thermos watching the sea, in a blue badge space.

My husband, when receiving intense chemotherapy was not allowed out of the car in public spaces and was prone to fits, so I would use his Blue Badge to watch over him from the shop while I bought food.

I have a disability that sometimes necessitates my using a toilet with an available sink. That is usually a disabled toilet.

On more than one occasion, in each of these scenarios, wheelchair uses have been abusive of the use of “their” spaces.

Not all disabilities are as apparent as a wheelchair, but they are just as real.

And yes, my husband and mother were BlueBadge holders and wheelchair users too. Just not all the time.

Georgesran : I am not sure if the disabled bays in the parking system are too narrow. Most of them have all that yellow criss-cross on them where I live and so I have seen wheelchair users making use of that extra space to transfer as nobody can park on it. Also I have seen the mini-buses with disable people in them manage well in those spaces even wheelchairs.

I do have empathy for the wheelchair user and probably about twice a week I see a disabled man park near a local Tesco (no disabled bay) he gets from his vehicle and has walking sticks and he with some difficulty gets to the back of his car and pulls out a wheelchair which he stumbles into, he then gets himself into the shop and goes around with a basket on his lap.. Outside of the shop I often see people offer to help him put the shopping or the wheelchair into the car but he dismisses any help saying he can manage.
I do feel somewhat sorry for him as he does seem to struggle.

How about more spaces for Blue Badge holders near to the facilities and parking further away for the able bodied? My DH doesn’t have a badge and is currently applying. The application form is a nightmare and documentation needs to be produced.

The seafront at Tynemouth is rather small with very little space for cars. IMO all the spaces in the high street should be designated as disabled parking only. Public transport in the NE is very good compared to other areas in the country. If it were not so expensive for families maybe more people would use it thus leaving space for people who can’t.

I agree with Georgesgran, wider parking spaces overall would by an asset to many people. But, larger spaces would reduce the number of spaces on any given area and ultimately reduce the revenue from parking - if there were a charge.
I'm temporarily disabled and actually getting out from the back seat, where I have to site sideways, is an absolute nightmare!
It should be acknowledged that not all disabilities are physical. I'd like to know if there was a sign at the disabled bays in the OP stating 'they were for restaurant/cafe customers only' , if not then I guess it's safe to assume they were designated by the local authority for all Blue Badge holders whether they choose to exit their vehicles or not.

There should be more spaces for blue badge holders and they should be checked by traffic wardens more often. People in wheelchairs have enough difficulties without parking problems.

Years ago Paw (who had a blue badge because he could barely walk across the room) would not let me park in a Blue Badge space nearer to Waitrose because he intended to stay in the car. He was very fair that way. So I had to park quite a way across the car park.
When I got back the car was empty and I finally saw him struggling across from the shop with his two sticks. Why?
He had decided he needed to pop into their loo after all.
I refrained from saying “Told you so!”

Not the wine yet trisher. Later definitely! Hope it isn’t the end of the world just yet...! Perhaps the prospect of rain for my poor old garden has addled my brain (doesn’t take much to excite me).

I think that's a good point Georgesgran. I actually think that most car park spaces are a bit neat. If all spaces were made larger it might make life easier for disabled people too.

Germanshepherdsmum

I’m worried, trisher, very worried. I’m agreeing with you again.?

Oh dear Gsm is it the wine or the end of the world? Must be something significant!!! (Thanks by the way)

On a slightly different strand - I think the Blue Badge Parking system needs to be overhauled.

DD2 uses a wheelchair - she can ‘push herself’ miles but needs the wider space to transfer safely. She thinks it would better if ordinary sized spaces were available closer to shops etc for the ‘walking disabled’ but an area set aside with wide bays actually for wheelchair users.

I have been with a friend in her car twice and she has a blue badge. Both occasions at a shopping car park there were people sitting in the disabled car space without a blue badge.
I knocked on their windows asking if they had forgotten to display their badges. They gave me confused looks as if to say what are you talking about and then said they did not have badges and they would move I cannot understand the mentality of people who just park anywhere.

I think the poster is being unreasonable if the other cars had a blue badge they have every right to use the disabled space. If someone is sitting in there car to look out to the sea perhaps that is the only outing they have had in several days.

I’m worried, trisher, very worried. I’m agreeing with you again.?

I know the area and last week the place was heaving, so any parking spaces were in demand. There may be many viewpoints but they are often full. You could argue that people sitting in their car or using the restaurant were preventing disabled people from using the beach.

Thanks for those replies - I wasn’t sneering about ‘the flask’ only a way to point out they hadn’t bought drinks from the cafe. I suppose you have to know the area to see that you can watch the sea from many vantage points. DD and I did so a week before - but hadn’t used any of those ‘precious spaces’ so close to the beach.

I have on occasion sat in a minibus in a blue badge space, (with a blue badge) and we may have had to sit there some time, there were often a thousand reasons for this, all connected to the needs of a young person with disabilities.

I know 2 blue badge holders. Both freely admit it’s not for the convenience but the saving of money.
But then I do have a young friend who lost her leg but refuses to have one.

My friend used to take her Mum out for a drive, the doors were all locked, with her dementia she was at risk of opening the doors when the car was moving, the sea view calmed her.

So you are saying that because you were going to use the restaurant you should have had precedence over someone just wanting to sit and look at the sea? Perhaps if the restaurant had its own parking spaces and non-customers were using them you might have a point, but I think these were public spaces and so it is nothing to do with you what other people use them for.

Grandmabatty you are required to display your Blue Badge in the vehicle when parked in a ‘Blue Badge Holders Only’ parking space.

Disable spaces for Blue Card holders are not for ‘wheelchair users only’ rightly or wrongly.

If people who are allowed, get there before you, you can't expect them to move it's their right. If they want to use a flask of coffee it's their right as well, you don't know what their financial circumstances were. How were they to know you would come along.

How do you know they hadn't got out and had a wander before you got there and were resting in the car before the drive home?

You have already said they were blue badge holders so maybe they needed to rest before setting off?

I do understand your frustration and the difficulty in having to park close to spaces when you are with someone with a disability or disabled yourself but I think you are taking your frustration out on the wrong people

You don't know if the elderly couple had hidden disabilities. As far as I am aware, you are not required to show a blue badge unless asked so on the information given,I think you are being unreasonable.

Sometimes when very ill a treat is being taken out in a car to see the sea.
Bliss to sit and stare after only seeing four walls for a very long time.

You are being very judgy. A person can be too ill and weak to get out of a car.
Just be glad your DD can do more than sit and stare.

When we arrived they were all taken - one by an elderly couple who sat staring at the sea, drinking from a flask

That's very sneering, so yes you are being unreasonable.