woman on my road had a go at me for my uncle using "her" disabled parking space

[sPJPPp]

There is someone down my road with a disabled bay outside her house. Its on a public road and parking can be bad here. My uncle came to visit and he is a blue badge holder so seeing as this was the only spot nearby parked there. Just after he left said woman banged on my door and started shouting at me for using her parking space that the council gave to her.

Is this parking space exclusively hers? Aibu to think if not my disabled uncle is fine parking there?

People are assuming that the OP knew that her uncle had parked in the disabled space - when people come and visit me, I never know where they've parked! Why should it be any different for the OP?

She may not have known a thing about all this until the neighbour banged on her front door. It's not the OP's responsibility to police her uncle's parking!

I can certainly understand how frustrating it would be for the neighbour, but unless there is a sign showing that it belongs to that house, how would the uncle know this? Surely, as a blue badge user, he can park there anyway provided it's free? Surely anyone with a blue badge can park there if it's free?

Good grief icimoi What's your problem? The space was unoccupied when another disabled person needed it. The much maligned uncle parked in a disabled spot

Joni, if there is one disabled space in a residential road, it must be obvious that it is there because the house nearby is occupied by a disabled person. To get that space the disabled person has demonstrated to the council that she needs it, i.e. if she can't park there she will be in serious difficulties. The uncle had no means of knowing that the disabled person in question wouldn't be back and need the space, and in fact she did. Because he was there, she presumably had to park some way away and will have had a difficult and probably painful walk/hobble/wheelchair ride back to her home.

The point you keep avoiding is that the uncle must have had other plans for parking: he couldn't know that there would be a disabled place available. But instead of following those plans, he chose to cause difficulty to another disabled person. What is considerate about that?

This thread also demonstrates another depressing tendency on MN: for all too many posters, the fact that something is allowed by law is the only issue; if something is lawful, you can be as inconsiderate as you like. Surely that isn't how they actually behave normally?

No, ubik, I clearly have not suggested that "that person with a disability should instead park somewhere else and suck it up because they have decided to step outside their front door" Please don't make things up to suit your argument.

When my disabled mother visits us, we generally try to make sure our car is parked directly outside our house and move it when she arrives so she can have the space. If that means, as it sometimes does, one of us has to move some way away, so be it. If we haven't been able to do that, we let her know and either arrange to pick her up or organise a taxi. What we wouldn't do is to decide that, rather than inconvenience ourselves, we will ask my mother to park down the road in the disabled space outside the house of neighbours who have a seriously disabled daughter. Isn't that just the normal, neighbourly thing to behave?

What we wouldn't do is to decide that, rather than inconvenience ourselves, we will ask my mother to park down the road in the disabled space outside the house of neighbours who have a seriously disabled daughter. Isn't that just the normal, neighbourly thing to behave?

Exactly.

So, I need to get a taxi if I can't park close even though there is an empty disabled bay that someone might not need that day at all?

I'd love to hear from other mobility impaired people about your experiences accessing places. It's not the same if it's your mum or best mate. Live it, breathe it, feel it and feel excluded because of it and then you know.

Wayfaring the point is seeing that disabled space was opportunistic on OP's uncles part, he would have had plans before parking there would he not? He took the opportunity to use it without even thinking that the woman who's home it was in front of would need it. "might' not need it doesn't equal does not need it.

When my disabled mother visits us, we generally try to make sure our car is parked directly outside our house and move it when she arrives so she can have the space. If that means, as it sometimes does, one of us has to move some way away, so be it.

Well that's great for you, but what about people who don't have a car?

It's not her space. Outside my building right now is a space fir disabled people to park in. Any disabled person. No one in our building us a blue badge holder.

What was this blue badge holder supposed to do? Knock on doirs until he found a random resident who owned a blue badge to ask permission to park in a space that he was allowed to park in anyway?

Why is it being compared to a workplace in which those parking spaces are there as standard to accommodate everyone. This woman had to get one so she could enter her own home. It was put there because of her. No-one else, her.

Using that space blocked her entry and ability to enter her own home.

Sometimes if I cannot access places, I turn around and go home.

This may be a debate for some of you but real life - every bloody day - for some of us. :(

*This woman had to get one so she could enter her own home. It was put there because of her. No-one else, her.

Using that space blocked her entry and ability to enter her own home.*

You don't know any of that!! Seeing as she was able too walkj up to my house bang on the door and shout at me until I closed the door on her, she seemed in much less need of the space. It hasn't been confirmed if that space was provided for her. Stick to the fact band stopo making things up.

I'm sorry you have to go through that wayfaring, I genuinely am. I'm not at the point of needing blue badges or anything so i can't even begin to imagine, I just work with people with mobility problems so see an outside point of view only.

I just think the point is she wasn't able to access her own house, not just a place, whereas OP's uncle would have had a plan in mind before he opportunistically took the space.

So, I need to get a taxi if I can't park close even though there is an empty disabled bay that someone might not need that day at all?

But what are you going to do if that disabled bay isn't conveniently empty and you still can't park close enough?

Well that's great for you, but what about people who don't have a car?

Presumably their visitors will have to take the risk that they can't park nearby, or get taxis? Obviously they can't assume that the disabled person down the road will have conveniently vacated her space.

I'm not saying I would use a blue badge space because I once did and got a disproportionately angry response and I try to manage as best I can. I wouldn't ever want to make anyone struggle either. That said, I'm not sure what the better option is for other disabled people. It is an issue but I don't know what the resolution is but I know that disabled people thinking they can't go to visit family/friends is unacceptable.

The taxi suggestions are ridiculous. They are expensive and wheelchair accessible ones are extortionate.

I agree with Strokethefurrywall it wasn't fair of neighbour to have a go at OP, she's not responsible for the actions of her uncle. However I do think it was a bit mean of her uncle to park where he did.

So, I ask again, WayfaringStranger, what do you suggest a disabled driver should do about travelling if he is going somewhere where there is no guarantee of a parking space reasonably near his destination and equally no guarantee that the disabled neighbour will have conveniently left her dedicated space empty? It's not me who is suggesting they can't visit family and friends.

They don't go or they turn around and go home. It's the reality. Btw, it is not anyone's dedicated space.

I completely agree with Icimoi.

By parking in a disabled bay that has been put right outside someone's home, you could be forcing them to park further away from their home than they can walk. What the fuck are they meant to do then?

OP, if the neighbour has a disabled space outside her home, it is because she has jumped through all the hoops imposed by the council and satisfied them that she needs it. She won't have inherited it from someone else or got it accidentally. The fact that she has made it to your door means very little in terms of her level of disability. She may, for instance, have been forced to park somewhere that meant she had to go past your house to get to hers, and in effect have been powered by anger and distress. And the point is, of course, that for all that you accuse others of not knowing the facts, neither do you. Neither you nor your uncle had any means of knowing what your neighbour's difficulties are, but you must have known that she is disabled.

I think the thread has become even more ridiculous now. All this talk of the uncle having been 'opportunistic' and people planning their parking spots in advance of their journeys

Why, joni? If you're disabled, advance planning is exactly what you do. It's an unfortunate necessity in a world where parking can be very difficult to come by.

people planning their parking spots in advance of their journeys

People do do this y'know, especially if they have mobility issues!

Why is it funny to plan where you park before you set off on your journey joni. We are staying in a hotel tomorrow night and didn't book one because they had no guaranteed parking and I wouldn't have been able to have walked to the hotel from the car park.