Blue badge rules

[Wishingplenty]

So if a blue badge holder drives to a location and parks only where a blue badge holder is allowed to park. Then let's someone else out of the car and waits for them, is this technically breaking blue badge rules because they are not the ones doing the walking but the able bodied person is?

I think it is. When I was reading thr booklet that came with my mums blue badge, it stated that person benefitting from the space must be the disabled person.

Yes the booklet that comes with the badge makes it clear the badge holder must be leaving the car. Otherwise they don’t need the space and should park elsewhere

“You should not use the badge to allow non-disabled people to take advantage of the benefits while you sit in the car.”

www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-blue-badge-scheme-rights-and-responsibilities-in-england/the-blue-badge-scheme-rights-and-responsibilities-in-england

Yes - if the person getting out isn't disabled then the door doesn't need to open wide, and they can walk further.

Who really cares? The blue badge owner is there, who’s to say they won’t get out of the car at some point or they might be particularly bad at that moment so decides to stay in the car. If a blue badge is displayed unless someone with authority wants to check it, members of public can jog on if they think I’m showing the back of my badge.

If I couldn’t get my son safely out the car due to misuse of the badge I would be pretty pissed off

People who really care are those thousands of genuinely disabled drivers who literally cannot get out of the car if they are not parked in a blue badge space with the extra space to the side to open the door to its fullest for wheelchair retrieval etc.
Every day I see people abusing the system....disabled people staying in the car while the non disabled person gets out and does whatever they want to do. Yes there are a few who are genuinely in the situation where the disabled person might want to get out of the car as well. But if they ever did a study on this I suspect the amount of abuse that is revealed who would be high.

And yes it does matter. Because arseholes abusing the blue badge scheme mean that genuinely disabled people who rely on being able to drive a car in order to have a life can't do so.

There aren’t many perks to being disabled and I think some disabled people like to be able to help family members out with things like parking for trips to the hospital. My MIL relies on us for so many things she enjoys being able to offer to help with something.

It’s the same as using parent and child spaces with one parent leaving the car and leaving the parent / child in the car while they nip in the shop.

But what if your MIL needed to leave the car but there were no spaces available because of someone using it like this?

So if your MIL couldn’t leave the car because of someone else taking a “perk”? That would be ok?

if we have a position where even disabled people will say “fuck you” to other disabled people then we really are stuffed

its not, p and c are handy. Disabled spaces are necessary.

Our local council are pretty clear that, if the disabled person is not leaving the car, you use a regular space. It’s not a ‘treat’ to be offered to the able bodied in the family.

People like your MIL doing family members a 'favour' is one of the reasons I often have to park on double yellows a good walk away from the hospital, unload my child in his wheelchair into active traffic then walk a dystonic child in crisis to the ward for treatment.

That's fine if the MIL gets out of the car. That's understandable and completely what the blue badge scheme is for.

If she stays in the car and you put her blue badge on the dash while you pop off and do your stuff then this is abuse of the system - and means that genuinely disabled people like myself (the driver) CANNOT get out of the car. Boils my piss that people think this is ok. Next time you do it, think of the cancer patient you are depriving of going to the supermarket during the only time that day they have stopped vomiting long enough to get out. So that people like your MIL can help her relatives abuse her blue badge.

I think that the lack of disabled parking spaces is not helping the situation. Where I live, in the main part of town, where the shops are, there are five spaces, or a bit of a walk to the main car park.

She does stay in the car but we park on double yellows near the hospital not in a disabled space so it’s not disadvantaging another disabled person.

Well OP literally said the bb holder would be sitting and waiting and not getting out of the car

You'd think it would be obvious to an actual bb holder why there's an issue and this would be a utter piss take but apparently not judging by your post

You do realise that is a sure-fire way of her getting her badge confiscated for mis-use if a parking warden finds her right?

My DH actually does have a disability (MS) hence the regular hospital visited but is not affected enough to qualify for a blue badge.

If is if that’s the only place they can park.

either Way it’s abuse of the badge and if reported she could lose her badge.

If he doesn’t have a badge he can’t use the badge, it really is that simple.

you can try to paint it however you want but your MIL is misusing her badge.

What does that have to do with anything?

If he doesn't qualify, he doesn't qualify, and its a non argument.

I've been disabled for 10 years, but its only been serious enough in the last 2 years to need a badge... i'd rather still not need one.

But being disabled with no blue badge still doesn't give him the right to use his mothers badge, which is effectively what he is doing. The badge is for the disabled person NAMED on the badge, not the family.

I don’t really care if it’s technically a misuse. I think it’s impossible to prove one way or the other. Maybe we’re taking MIL for lunch or another appointment and this is just a stop on the way. It’s pretty stressful trying to hold down a full time job, manage a chronic condition and multiple hospital appointments. Being able to actually park at the hospital makes a huge amount of difference.