To think that Waverley Council ^shouldn't^ be charging

[CardyMow]

Blue Badge holders to use a disabled parking space??!! Apparently they will get a concession of getting one hour extra for their money. Are Waverley council Tory by any chance??!! AIBU to think that this is well out of order?

Fair enough

My views are probably swayed a little by having grown up in Waverley. It is a small borough and mostly semi rural. It is certainly not possible to walk to town centres or even "local" shops in many areas and public transport is still non existent in many parts. I can't think of any park and ride schemes etc off the top of my head.

I suppose what I am saying is that there are probably at least as many able bodied people who don't have choices (due to location and/or finances) as their are disabled people in the same position (due to disability).

Obviously it doesn't follow that all holders of blue badges are financially struggling and many can afford to pay parking and so paying parking fees is not something that prevents them "having some semblence of an independent life".

Perhaps a fairer option would be to have free parking for those on a restricted income, but I am pretty sure I know what the reaction to that suggestion would be.

Really? The bus?

Walking to a bus stop, waiting there, maybe there are no seats and you cannot stand for long. Maybe your legs go and you end up on the floor. perhaps it's too long a walk to the bus stop. Maybe you live rurally and there's only three buses a day.

Or wheeling yourself to a bus stop, perhaps there's no room on the bus and you have to wait for the next one, missing your appointment.

Perhaps you feel really really vulnerable being a disabled person on public transport. Maybe you live in a rough area and actually are at risk.

Get a bus indeed. I wish it was that simple. Oh, disabled? catch a bus.

It isn't that simple.

"free parking for those on a restricted income"

I suppose that would be a compromise option, yes. It doesn't seem fair that anyone should have to pay because they are disabled. Paying something that you HAVE to pay because you are disabled feels like a punishment. But yes, if push came to shove and the choice was all pay parking, or get special badges for those people with blue badges who are also on low income, then I would certainly choose that.

Then wheel yourself however far to and from the stop whilst carrying your shopping. Easy peasy.

I'm guessing you don't have much experience of disability Queen

I've done the bus-with-3-small-children thing when I was able bodied. Hectic, but do-able.

I ended up housebound when I spent 4 months in a wheelchair, as there was no way I could get on the bus without help. Even with help, drivers will regularly refuse to pick you up if the bus has pushchairs on it.

Ditto walking. It's do-able with small children. In a wheelchair you need well maintained pavements, dropped curbs, no steep inclines...

I get that Waverley is fairly rural, and bus service is not brilliant, but is it such a big hardship to the council to provide free parking for blue badge holders - who GET the blue badge to give them opportunities to live a normal life?

I know that my local council are trying to pedestrianise our High street - which means doing away with disabled parking spaces full stop, and providing parking halfway up a huge hill that is practically impossible to self-propel a wheelchair up - yet that is where the council deems it appropriate to move the disabled parking to. My wheelchair-bound friend will be totally unable to go into the town centre if the council do this. So lots of councils round here seem to be trying to make things harder for those with disabilities. Maybe we should all crawl back under a rock and disappear?

and cope with instead of getting in the car both ways, having to get to a bus stop, wait, have the journey, do what you have to do, get back to the bus stop, maybe with shopping, make sure it doesn't get nicked, keep yourself safe, get off the bus, get back home...

Exhausting. Able bodied people don't often realise how exhausting that would be.

Many times, you would just not be able to face it.

Hills - yes, that's another thing. Just try getting up a bloody hill when you have a disability that is severe enough to entitle you to a blue badge!

So what about those who are disabled and can't drive? Seriously? Quite a few people in my family are disabled, my aunt had to stop driving when her disability caused her to nearly have a horrific accident (we all thought she should have stopped sooner) she doesn't live near town etc she doesn't benefit from free parking she is essentially housebound in your eyes. She has to get a taxi there is no choice for her, buses there aren't adapted for wheelchair use.

My dad was disabled had blue badge he couldn't walk very far on the flat without stopping for a rest let alone hills he used sticks, he lived in an area with absolute crap bus links how do you propose people like him would manage on the non existent bus.

My aunt was an amputee and could therefore only walk very short distances and used a blue badge. She was actually very offended that she should get free parking as she felt it perpetuated the myth that disabled people were all hard up and couldn't do well paying jobs.

While I appreciate that some disabled people need all the financial and physical help they can get, others just crave to be treated as normally as possible.

Also - even with a free bus pass - you often can't USE the bus when you need to. I get a free bus pass due to my disability. But because I have to catch two buses a day BEFORE I am able to use my bus pass - I have already spent as much on bus fares as an all day ticket costs.

I get a free bus pass that can be used after 9.30am due to the fact that I have epilepsy, and cannot hold a driving license. I have no choice (for various reasons) but to catch a bus to get DS1 & DS2 to school. I catch one bus at 8.12, and another at 8.57.

So what if somebody wheelchair-bound NEEDED to get to an appointment before 9.30am? And also, people who are disabled who are in receipt of DLA often give up part of their DLA in order to get a mobility vehicle, which has been adapted for them (thus losing out on some money they may need). Which means that they have already 'lost' the part of their money that is meant to cover transport costs - so paying for parking, paying for a taxi, or paying for bus fare if they need to travel earlier on in the day, is patently unfair.

But they DO have a choice, park and pay or internet shopping... my friend already feels almost 'beholden' to society, she has pride, she would not mind paying.

Most choices involve payment, but if you're saying a disabled person hasn't got the choice to WALK into town, then neither have I. Its a fair comment, its a fact that they don't have that choice, however, every choice OTHER than walking faces a charge of some kind, petrol, bus fare, taxi etc.,

I don't believe we should be charging extortionate rates, or even the same rates as other inner city parking spaces because for the abled there are cheaper ways, park and ride for example. But a small parking charge is fair.

I thought DLA was there to provide for the extra costs that a disability may bring, so travel would surely fall under that.

People can have a blue badge and work, claim DLA etc so charging for parking is not the worst cut back that can be made.

faithless

are you saying that because your aunt wont benefit from free parking, then no-one else should?

Perhaps there is confusion between disabled people and blue badge holding disabled people! I don't mean to come across as patronising oooh, you're confused

To qualify for a blue badge, you must be unable or virtually unable to walk (or blind but if that's the case then you won't be driving yourself. and there are a few other circumstances but primarily it's about mobility) Not everyone who has a disability is entitled to a blue badge.

It isn't anybody with a disability, it is those people who have the most difficulty walking. The very people who would find it most difficult to use public transport. All that walking to bus stops, waiting at bus stops...

HappyMummy - often blue badge holders will have 'given up' their money that they are given for transport costs in order to get a mobility vehicle that has been adapted for them. Which means that NO, in some cases, blue badge holders will NOT be getting DLA to cover their transport costs.

You don't have to be a driver to have a blue badge.

If you qualify, you have a blue badge and anyone who drives you is entitled to use it for your benefit.

You can also get a car under the motability scheme, and have nominated drivers.

What about wanting to get out of the house, aldi? There is also not wanting to be isolated.

I wouldn't be entitled to a blue badge - even though I am entitled to a 'free' bus pass (that I can't use). Only those most unable to walk any distance will qualify for a blue badge.

Ha, dla covers next to nothing. And really, how many people are we talking? It hardly costs councils hundreds and hundreds of thousands, why can't we just do something nice for people who may have harder lives than the average (with no chance to improve) without getting all antsy about it?

Some people really are ignorant!

I thought DLA was there to provide for the extra costs that a disability may bring, so travel would surely fall under that.

As well as all the other things.

A blue badge is small consolation to having a life changing disability, yet there are still some people that would begrudge that.

aldiwhore - if you lived a mile and a half from the town centre, and you were able-bodied, you WOULD be able to walk there and back. If your next-door neighbour was wheelchair-bound - they would NOT be able to. Pretty clear definition of the able-bodied person having more choice than the wheelchair-bound person, no?

aldi alot of disabled drivers are older people who don't have Internet or people who can't afford it, in the last months of my dads life I was travelling through at least twice a week to do errand and shopping for my parents that involved a 45 minute journey each way, that was on top of having virtually no sleep due to my disabled son never sleeping.

Or like my parents they may live where supermarkets don't deliver.

How dare the disabled actually want to leave their homes. Tsk.