Blue badge parking

DaphneBroon There is a facebook site called Atos Miracles which often talks about this problem. If you go there and post your problem you will get a more sympathetic approach from people who have had the same issue and they might give you advice.

I have a blue badge because I have MS and walking any kind of distance is difficult, but I don't use a wheelchair. I attend a club in a busy area with limited parking which is a lifeline to me and it has got disabled spaces nearby. Recently my council decided to make the spaces disabled ones until 6 pm then free to anyone. I now can't park anywhere near as the club is early evening. I have written to the council, but have not got very far. They seem to think disabled people don't go out at night !

I would ring the council and report her. She has no right to put a sign up saying a disabled person lives there if it's a lie.

A friend of mine was a carer for her stepson who was seriously ill. He was given a blue badge and she used it all the time even though he was bedridden for months. She walked her dogs for miles every day - fit as a fiddle!

My GD was in a wheelchair for 2 months when visiting Waitrose I would park in the disabled bays and the Waitrose staff would give me sign to put in my window saying temporary disabled. That's service for you . Asia has their disabled bays further away from the store entrance than the them parent and children ones making it very hard for the walking disabled. I have pointed this out to the manager but to no good so when I have to take my daughter, a walking blue badge holder shopping there I park in the parent and child space.

My husband has a blue badge. He broke his hip when he was in his thirties and it has never, and never will fully heal. In spite of two replacements, he cannot have a third as there is not enough bone left, he is in constant pain. He still has to apply for his blue badge on a regular basis, which in his case is nonsense. A look at his X-ray would reveal the extent of his problem.
In spite of the pain, he does walk, not to do so would be bad for his health, but he can scarcely manage the regulatory number of yards needed to get a blue badge.
When people abuse the system, I get very angry. There are people out there like my DH who would simply be housebound with their badge.

Our local FB group varies between moaning and being rude to people. The only reason I stay on is because it informs me as well. It has thousands of members but it is the obnoxious who are vocal.

I was once a member of a forum set up by a major supermarket, with fewer members. That one was so friendly and I have never come across such a fantastic group of strangers since. We still message on FB sometimes since the plug was pulled on the group.

My late neighbour was quadriplegic but still worked as a scientist after his accident. He and his wife had to fight tooth and nail for a parking badge - he had to be winched from the wheelchair into and out of the car which took some time to achieve and obviously needed extra space to do this. Yet, another person in the village had a 'bad back' and could often be seen walking without difficulty, but not only acquired a blue badge but also a car in which to display it! (She happened to be extremely wealthy, so not sure how she managed to wangle a car as well). There seems to be no rhyme or reason for who or how ........

Galen - my Mum has a Blue Badge & she told me that if Disabled bays are full you are allowed to use Parent & Child bays whilst displaying Blue Badge.

I have mobility issues but because my Personal Independence Payment is only for care not mobility I am not eligible for a Blue Badge - Doctors used to have input on Blue Badges sadly this is no longer the case, I can only walk a short distance (with a stick) & struggle to get in/out of my car in normal spaces

SEASIDENANA......Complain to YOUR local Counsellor.....Local Authority can give you the name if you ask for ìt.
They usually have an email address if not a phone number. Be ASSERTIVE. At our age we can get away with it. Play the Age Game too !

Please ladies stop judging people!!!! I have a blue badge, many invisible conditions including a disabled bowel which means I have to park and find a loo practically instantly !! I also have a degenerative back condition which you'd not know about by looking at me. I try very hard to act normal for want of better words. I've had 2 knee replacements in 12 months and can assure people you need the bigger parking space as you have to turn sideways on your seat then stand up straight which requires the car door to be wide open!!!

Chrishappy it is in your, and all genuine Blue Badge holders, to have these rogues outed, or 'judged' if you prefer that term.

Too many rogues out there abusing the system and taking parking places from genuine people like you.

I'm presuming, of course, that the young man I say park in a disabled bay at Tesco today, display a blue badge and then sprint to the cash machine wasn't a genuine BB holder, though of course he might have hidden disability

I too have a Blue Badge. I am one of those people who have hidden disabilities and often look really well when I'm not. After being off work for a long time, I returned to work. On my first day back I went to a meeting and parked in a disabled bay in the Local Council Offices. One of the senior officers came up to me and told me to get out of the space, I showed her my badge. She stormed in to the building, demanding to know my name, saying "There is nothing wrong with her! She is not disabled!" I was in a terrible state. Never judge a book by it's cover.
My daughter took me to a well known supermarket last weekend, half the disabled bays had cars with no badges displayed. I tweeted the complaints section of this huge supermarket chain, did they respond? They couldn't have cared less.

But presumably you can't sprint, can you?

DaphneB I can truely appreciate your shock at FB I go on a very grown up ( not grown up in that sense lol) photography group last night a gentleman (the wrong word I think) put what I saw as a rather cryptic remark about a photo opportunity I asked him to explain and put two question marks after my remark, that seems to have sent him into overdrive I then had about 10 remarks from himself one after the other calling me a miserable sod, a saddo, that I was a rude and nasty person all in capitals, that he'd never liked me and never would ( I don't know him from Adam and had never had any run ins or contact with him in the past) I resorted to Admin who wrote a public reply on the thread requesting us to stop arguing !!!! I couldn't believe where it all came from I can only imagine he was drunk I truely hope so as I ve no idea where all this vitriol came from if he was in his right mind .....Very unsettling at night when you re on your own

Here in France supermarkets have disabled bays marked with the notice, as someone on here has suggested, which say If you take my place you can also take my disability. Unfortunately people still park in those space who are perfectly able bodied ....disabled badges have to be worked for here quite hard ....my OH can now no longer walk far, and is unsteady on his feet ...throws the car door open so I have to find an end space in the car park .....but there is no way we would qualify for a badge ...and he wouldn't have one anyway !! ...but I was absolutely DELIGHTED to see, a few weeks ago, the Gendarme giving an on the spot fine (its usually 90 euros for everything here !) ...to someone parked in the disabled bay whilst his wife nipped to the paper shop ....what annoys me greatly is that on market days, both the disabled bays are taken up by market stalls ...there is one regular visitor, every day, whose wife brings him to the local cafe for his coffee ....there is nowhere for her to park ...I don't know if she has complained to the Mairie about the market stalls, but I know I would ! Another incident in the local supermarket queue ....people can use the Disabled check out if there is no disabled person wanting it ....well, there was a queue of able bodied people, and a wheelchair user arrived. The cashier beckoned her to the front of the queue and I couldn't believe it when a couple of people complained ! how can you do that !!!! They could have moved to another queue !

Ha, ha, I can't remember the last time I sprinted! My husband says I take Hobbit steps, I'm so slow. I have recently had to give up my job, a major blow, due to my numerous health conditions going crazy. I'll never work again.
The badge allows me to retain some level of independence. Good days I go out myself, bad days my husband drives me. I'm getting over a major rheumatoid flare up and had up to four hospital and doctor visits a week. Some days I could hardly walk. The Blue badge is a godsend, especially for hospital visits. The hospitals all seem to be at the top of a very steep hill!
I'm improving now, so going to make most of it. You would never know looking at me, that my prognosis is poor. You can't tell by looking at them if someone is eligible for a badge or not.

Don't forget disabled toilets. As someone who has both arms (temporarily) out of action, I cannot manipulate the door locks or flushing systems of some ordinary toilets. So it's intensely annoying to wait for the disabled one to be vacated, especially when you can hear giggling kids in there and they eventually emerge fully made up and leaving it stinking of cheap scent they've doubtless shoplifted.

I can walk away from my car looking terribly normal when I park up with my blue badge. What you don't see is me crawling back. If I wasn't able to park close to my destination, it would reduce the amount I could cope with. I have an invisible condition which needs me to pace myself in order to avoid total collapse. I see people looking at me judgementally but they'd only have to live a couple of days in my shoes and they'd get it. I have been sworn at and physically abused but I have to prove my condition at regular intervals. One elderly gentleman questioned my lack of a wheelchair (sometimes used) or crutches (I can't, my shoulders won't let me) and told me I was lucky I was too young to be disabled. I was born with the condition, you are never too young to be disabled. The only time I get angry is when people use the bays without badges. Yes, it is in my interest for the frauds to be exposed but nowadays more and more genuine people are getting bashed for something they can ill afford.
Incidentally, although you automatically get a blue badge if you get the enhanced mobility rate for DLA/PIP, you can use supporting evidence from a DR/Specialist if you get the lower rate.

The local Asda near where I worked had a manager who was always on the ball when it came to misuse of the spaces for disabled people and parents with children. If she became aware of anyone doing this, she would immediately put out a message over the tannoy asking "for the driver of car reg number xxxx, parked in a space reserved for disabled customers/those with young children, to come to the front door". If they were found to be genuinely misusing the spaces, she would speak to them very forcefully in full view of everyone going in and out of the store, and ask them how they would feel as a person needing the space if they arrived to find an able-bodied person with no young children occupying it. I used to want to applaud these lectures. I do hope she hasn't retired too, as we seemed to be much of an age!

My daughter has a Blue badge. She has mobility problems and just knowing that she can use the wider parking bays is a huge help to her. Because she is young (in her thirties) we have sometimes had people complain about her parking in a disabled bay but she does have genuine problems walking due to an issue with her hips/lower back. Many disabled parking bays are further away from the shop entrance than mother and baby bays so I am not sure why people get so jealous of anyone who has a Blue badge. My daughter would happily exchange her Blue badge to be fully mobile again and be able to play with my grandchildren.

A few years ago before he retired DH worked with a young man in his twenties who had MS.
He had quite a hard nut look shaved head (think Phil Mitchell ) and drove a bright yellow car,he said people were always confronting him and were very judgemental because he had a blue badge.

A friend of mine who is 56 has bad COPD which means he has severe lung restriction and has a blue badge. He sometimesis housebound on oxygen and you cant always tell by looking at him that he is so ill and restricted.
He cant walk far without gasping for breathe and is told to do as much as he can so sometimes he might walk around the supermarket instead of using one of their buggies as activity adds to his lungs working. His work left him in this condition so young.

You cant always tell what illness a person has, by looking at them. Some are remitting and relapsing - they get worse and less worse.

My DH had work-relaated COPD, which contributed in a large part to his death.

He refused to give in to it and insisted on walking as much as he could, which towards the end wasn't very far at all, but as others have said, his incapacity was not obvious apart from his slowness but without the Blue Badge he wouldn't have gone out at all.

I expect lots of people would judge a friend of mine and her teenage son parking in a disabled bay. What they can't see is his epilepsy and his severe autism, which causes him to be non-verbal and unable to keep himself safe, therefore requiring close supervision at all times.