Aww, it's nice to get the odd compliment now and thenOriginally Posted by snootyjim
No, not at all. I'd describe you as cantankerous
Do you mean you couldn't do without the benefit of a Blue Badge or do you, by virtue of your Blue Badge, have a reserved space outside your home?
I had an accident 3 and a half years ago leaving me unable to walk without crutches and I need to open the car door fully in order to get out. I've also been diagnosed with FM a year and a half ago. It took me over a year to finally be issued with a BB and it really is a god send but alas, due to limited disabled spaces at most places and selfish bastards who park there anyway, it's not a perfect solution.
Before getting the badge I had to find 2 empty spaces next to each other, and park in the middle of both so could get door fully open. This usaully meant the far end of a store car park to get 2 adjacent spaces and you wouldn't believe the abuse I'd get from people calling me a selfish bastard for wasting 2 spaces.... even when I dragged myself along on crutches!
Don't know about everywhere else, but here you have to pay to have the reserved space outside your house. It means any blue badge holder can use it, it's not exclusively yours. Not that it matters as every **** head will still park in them
Anyway, at the OP Santa - what are you moaning about? I thought you parked your sleigh on the bloody roof
Well, I'm not moaning about the legitimate blue badge/disabled space owners but I am moaning about that which appears to be abuse.Anyway, at the OP Santa - what are you moaning about? I thought you parked your sleigh on the bloody roof
Parking on the roof will be the only option once the highway is filled with personally reserved spaces. I think I'll stop taking viagra and get a space because I have a limp.
I'm absolutely sure there is an element of abuse. I saw one bloke recently park his 4x4 in a disabled bay, leap out with what struck me as considerable mobility, and do what would have been a creditable performance in an Olympic 400m sprint final as he headed for some shops. If he was disabled, it sure as hell wasn't in any evident way.
Mind you, that was someone abusing (in my judgement) a disabled bay, with no blue badge in evidence, not someone abusing a blue badge.
On the other hand, it can be quite difficult, as you point out, to assess some valid medical conditions from a brief look. For instance, a relative of mine can walk in what appears to be an entirely normal fashion .... for about 15 yards. Then, due to heart problems, they either have to rest, or fall over. And a friend can walk a decent distance if he has to ..... but every step involves considerable pain. He's pretty practised at not showing it, though, unless you know him well.
So, I think it's very hard indeed to tell whether someone's abusing a BB, or just, as you say, appear to be doing so, but aren't.
And as for that <bleep> with the 4x4 and the Olympic ambitions, well, I'm not a very nice person at times and all I can say is that I do really hope that such selfish <bleeps> get to find out what it's like to actually need a BB. And seriously, I really do hope that.
To anyone that abuses disabled bays when they don't need them, I invite you to consider an old aphorism .... there but for the grace of God go you. We can all be struck down with unexpected serious illness at any age, and we can all end up seriously hurt in a traffic accident, so none of us should take our current good health, if indeed we have it, for granted, and not be so <bleeping> selfish as to use a disabled bay if we aren't entitled to. We all might, after all, end up on the other side of that Blue Badge someday.
I got really naffed off yesterday, I was about to reverse in to a disabled bay when some woman swung in and parked in it without a badge, I decided to drive around the car park and I parked side in behind her so she couldn't get out and then flagged down the bloke that checks that cars have paid/displayed, she came out to find him writing her up a ticket and I went home happy!
Someone left a note on a piece of cake in the fridge that said, "Do not eat!". I ate the cake and left a note saying, "Yuck, who the hell eats paper ?
I don't think people have got their heads around the fact that a BB is issued to a person not a vehicle. There seems to be quite a bit of abuse involving this aspect.
Could you get done for obstruction in those circs though?
Platinum (02-08-2011)
Wasn't his fault he suffered from sudden and temporary paralysis of the right foot.
It's the sort of place people stop all the time for pickup/drop offs all the time at ASDA so I doubt it but it only took me a minute to flag the bloke down anyway and point it out (the wife was taking our disabled daughters buggy out of boot at time anyway)
Someone left a note on a piece of cake in the fridge that said, "Do not eat!". I ate the cake and left a note saying, "Yuck, who the hell eats paper ?
Assuming it's not private property, yes. It's technically an offence to wilfully obstruct the highway (s. 137 of the Highways Act 1980), and that can be interpreted pretty broadly if a constable so chooses .... and has grounds for doing so. That could be construed as parking just about anywhere on the highway, though the obstruction needs to be "wilful", without "lawful authority or excuse" and not just of a temporary nature.
You could, again in theory, get arrested for it, too, subject to a condition or two. S.25 of the original PACE game powers of arrest beyond the standard arrestable offences, and though this has been repealed, the provisions were effectively copied to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, where an officer can arrest if he feels he has reasonable grounds to believe it's necessary to prevent an obstruction of the highway (amongst other things). It's s.110, and it's a bit more complex than that, but that's the basics.
In practice, you'd probably have to consistently refuse to move the vehicle, or come across a cop in a very bad mood, to get arrested for it. They're far more likely to just want to calm things down, and get everyone on their way, preferably in different directions.
I can only go by my own horrible experience that in my area the BB's aren't handed out willy nilly. The disabled parking spaces outside your house have to be paid for by the resident and they aren't cheap either. The biggest problem relating to the OP's annoyance of the amount of them is because unlike the BB's themselves, when no longer needed, the disabled space is not removed. A lot of these spaces are used for the elderly which sadly as we know, don't last forever. There are 3 such spaces near my girls school that were used for elderly residents who are no longer with us. As a BB owner I'm entitled to use that space but unless I get to the school 45 mins early I don't stand a chance as usual selfish mothers park their 4x4 in them incase precious should have to take more than 10 paces when they come out.... and some even double park ffs!!!
I blame peter.
I suppose too, apart from the legal aspect, there could be circumstances where obstruction could be dangerous. I can think of a few (admittedly unlikely) scenarios so taking things at face value works both ways.
Yep, the Council is much quicker at laying down the paint than removing it.
I really am trying not to be the old grump here but it seems to me that the system needs a review and a consistent policy.
Oh, indeed. Parking in a way that restricts, for instance, access to wide vehicles, like a fire engine or ambulance, for a start. Though, if you're on private property, much of the legislation about obstruction obviously doesn't apply.
We have a blue badge for my daughter who has a pretty complex condition which includes poor muscle tone and autism. I often feel awkward when we park in a disabled space, and we all get out of the car, apparently entirely physically able. We use it for two reasons: 1. she gets very tired when we've been out somewhere, so having the car closer is a real help, and 2. being on the autistic spectrum, she doesn't have any real road sense, so parking somewhere this is more space, and less cars, and a shorter distance to your objective helps a lot.
I say this because I get very annoyed with apparent blue badge abuses. But I have to remind myself that blue badges aren't issued for purely obvious physical disabilities.
As has been pointed out, badges are issued for the person not the car. We NEVER use the badge for ourselves (myself and wifey), but I'm sure many people do. Many non-blue badge holders park in disabled spaces, and that gets me very cross. Yes, there may appear to be a lot of spaces, so it seems reasonable to park there, but while you're away, all the other spaces fill up....
You've made a key point: it is the abusers that bring the system into disrepute and it may jeopardise the benefits for genuine BB holders such as your daughter.
Slightly off topic but parent and child spaces get much more abuse than disabled spots. I know it's a much lesser evil (which is probably why so many people see no problem with ti) but it's still frustrating trying to get a small child out of a child seat in a normal spot when you can't open the door wide enough to lean in.
I thoroughly agree about the location though - I would rather the parent and child spaces weren't right next to the entrance - the point of these spots is that they are wider, parents don't need the proximity that is also important for disabled spots.
In fact our local sainsburys used to have all the parent and child spots round the corner from the entrance and I rarely had a problem getting one. However when they redesigned a year ago they moved all the parent and child spots next to the disabled ones (i.e. right next to the entrance) and of course now they are always full of cars with no child seats...
The only logic I could think is whether blue badge holders could also use these spots if the disabled ones were full? But if that's there intention, they'd be better off just adding more disabled spots.
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