To block in cars parked in disabled bays?

[RainingHens]

I know, that old chestnut and i've namechanged!
DS had a session at a local authority owned sports centre today he has severe disabilities and uses a wheelchair.
There are five disabled bays, none were available and none had a blue badge showing.
We need to use a larger bay to get him and his chair in and out of the car so I blocked one car in went to reception told them why I had done this and that I would only be a couple of minutes.
Got back to the car and it has been keyed all down one side, was defo ok when I left the car.
Was bu to block them in, really? There was nowhere else to park (because all the bays had been used by non- blue badge holders)
Honestly what would you have done?

Westie - to be fair some people, in that small selection of posters, quallified thier advice with suggestions that you tell the security guard. Had I posted I would have said 'use the space but put a note in your windscreen explaining'.

On the one occasion I used a space with DS when he was using his wheelchair and did not have his badge with me I left a note and left his crutches v visible in the car.

Maybe one of the people in these bays was a disabled person who had forgotten a badge - and were braving the fuorore, as you were advised to do.

• withOUT a blue badge

Yes, but Westie you were perfectly entitled to use the space but had forgotten your badge. You can bet out of the 5 in the BB spaces maybe 1 might possibly have forgotten too, but no way all 5 had.

And you wouldn't have keyed someone's car, I bet.

sunshine, there was no where to leave the car to go into reception to ask whoever had parked to please move their car, also ds cannot be left alone which would have meant getting him into his chair anyway.
Westie, I think the views on this have been quite fairly mixed actually. Personally though, I never park in disabled bays if ds is not with me nor do I park with him without showing a valid blue badge.

YANBU.

Word of warning though, our car was vandalised with us sitting in it because the man doing the vandalism didn't think DD was disabled enough (high rate mobility DLA, motability car, blue badge).

I got a photo of the incident, also his car details so he was traceable. The switchboard operator at the police classified it as disability hate crime, but the officers refused to deal with it as it took place on private property.

Cos they couldn't be arsed with the paperwork.

When I've forgotten the badge westie I've either gone home or tried to find a suitable regular spot. :consistent:

But whether the op was right to park there is irrelevant - parking illegally (and understandably ) does not give anyone the green light to vandelise someone else's property - a crime which is certainly viewed in a poorer light than illegal parking.

I don't think you should have blocked the cars in, I can understand the frustration but it was not your place. Complain to the leisure centre and ask for the spaces to be monitored.

You may strongly suspect that 5 cars haven't all forgotten to display their badges bu you don't know for certain. Some places don't require you to display a badge and due to the risk of them being stolen people choose not to (though how you determine that they actually have one I have no idea!)

YANBU

If the council have civil enforcement officers and someone not displaying a blue badge is parked in a disabled bay then phone the council to complain. They can radio a civil enforcement officer to be sent to the area to issue them a ticket and even get the car towed. There is normally a number on the meter you can call.

Haven't read the other thread but I thought you had to display the blue badge, just owning it is not enough. Otherwise we could keep them at home and not have to risk lowlifes breaking into our cars to steal them. So if I'd forgotten it I wouldn't risk using the space in case I got fined.

Good evening all

Just a reminder of all our guidelines in case anyone might need them
Thank you kindly.

We have to renew our blue badges as they all go out of date now - after too much abuse of the system with people using relative's badges they introduced the renewal rule here (not in UK)

This means 3 weeks when you have no badge as you have to send the old one off and I'm never sure if we're going to be fined. I risk it in shopping centres as the car is very obviously disabled adapted but not for example in city centres or places with parking wardens. It sometimes means not going to places at all.

I've just sent in the form to renew ds's badge but luckily they send them to us a few weeks in advance of the old badges running out so in theory we shouldn't get a gap. In theory! We don't have to send the old badges in as the expiry date is clearly marked across them.

As usual I turn my back on a thread for a few minutes and miss goings-on.

RainingHens

It was you who made the link between the blocked in car and the vandalism not me.

You cannot have it both ways.

There is never a valid reason for vandalising someone elses property.

The conditions of use of a disabled parking space are displaying a valid blue badge.

When I have had to renew DDs Blue Badge, I have to take the expiring badge back with me. This does mean not being able to display the badge whilst I am in the council offices renewing the badge! So someone didn't think that one through very well.