To be fuming about this

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I'll probably be flamed for this but here goes anyway ...

We have 5 DC. 2 have blue badges, 1 of them has a disabled bus pass. 1 other child has autism.

This week our local council has decided to start charging blue badge holders to park in the council run car parks from April next year. Also the local buses are planning on stopping people using their bus passes between 9 and 9:30am and scrapping the free companion thing.

I'm not happy (and neither is one of the councillors who also has a blue badge and wasn't even allowed to vote because he was biased). I know cuts have to come from somewhere and we're all in this together etc. But I still want to shout "it's not fair".

I won't bore you with our sob story but I'll just say that I spent a long time getting DS2 and DS4 their blue badges and DS2 his bus pass (lots of paperwork, phonecalls etc involved, and with DS4 we had to appeal as well). Now it feels like my efforts have been partly wasted. I have to fight for everything my boys get because of their disabilities and I'm just sick of it.

The comments about the accessibility (or not) of parking payment machines don't really impact on the OP as it is her children that need assistance, not herself.

(I think that all public services/facilities etc should be as accessible as possible for everyone btw.)

But I don't agree that a child's dla needs to cover the cost of feeding a parent while the child is in hospital etc.

OP, I honestly do understand how crappy it is to have a child with additional needs, but I can't agree with your arguments here.

Here we go again
People all jealous of disable people getting something.
Cos of the nature of my childs disability we have to have a massive WaV that uses up all of teh mobility element of her dla
We are also limited as to where we can prk. So free parking is brilliant nd helps her go out

I think many people do not realise how bloody hard it can be. Everything is stupid and annoying and impractical.
My dad has just got a new electric wheelchair. He can't find a vehicle that itcan be easily loaded in and out of. It was taking my mum TEN MINUTES to load and unload it. That doesn't sound long til you imagine her in the pouring rain, needing flipping ALLEN KEYS to take it apart. It just puts my dad off leaving the house, which he hardly does anyway. The hoist snapped in the end so he rang wheelchair services explaining he was essentially housebound and was told they don't care, as long as he has a wheelchair theyve done their job. So my mum is now pushing a large man around in a manual wheelchair to his many appointments.... Luckily he has money put aside to buy a second hamd power chair just for going out but this has all Been unbearable for them both.
Little things like free parking and mum getting into attractions free as his carer really do make the difference to a situation that is so unrelentingly SHITTYfor both of them.

I have not trawled through all the replies so apologies if this has already been said. I took my 96 year old grandmother (who has a blue badge) to a theatre show a few weeks ago. We were able to park right outside in the disabled parking bays. My grandmother is unable to leave the house of her own accord as she has mobility problems and has at least 30 steps outside her front door (She refuses to move). I do her shopping and call to keep her company and make sure she is ok 3 times a week. My mother also calls to see her.

My nan thoroughly enjoyed the theatre show that her grandson was in and we returned to the car to find a note on my windscreen saying "Thank you very much for parking so close to our car that we had trouble putting my wheelchair in the boot".

Now there is a car park directly opposite the disabled parking bays - with disabled spaces. There is no option for people to park close to your boot. There was nothing at all on this persons car to suggest there was a wheelchair in use when I originally parked. No way did I park any closer than I would have parked had I not been in a disabled space.

All I conclude from this experience is that someone who needed a wheelchair was better able to park in a large car park where there was no chance of someone hindering the boot space but chose not to. My very elderly grandmother on the other hand does not require a wheelchair but has mobility problems.

This experience has really made me think about the ethos of disabled parking.

Agree with other posters.
There should be lots of spaces available for blue badge holders. But why should they be free?
Isn't the whole point of disability allowances, so that the money received can go towards things which make life easier - one of those things being car park charges.
Cuts have to be made somewhere.

Ok I see how the free parking would be beneficial - maybe this is why it was voted out, because those of us who have never had to use blue badge spaces don't realise the implications.

I mean, I understand that there are other costs associated with most disabilities, but taking longer to get round the shops and not being able to access free spaces further away aren't things that automatically spring to mind.

I sort of thought of it from a practical PoV, like parent and child spaces, making it about accessibility, but now I can see why the financial aspect should also be considered. It's a shame the disabled councillor wasn't able to contribute towards the discussion.

What local authority are you under? I hope the change to the disabled bus pass isn't a national thing as I use it to get to work so it would be £7.50 for 5 days a week if I had to pay in the mornings in order to get there on time.

I understand the need for larger spaces closer to the doors, but not the need for it to be free.

so you only understand disabilities that require a wheel chair then but not those of the mind!!!

Isn't the whole point of disability allowances, so that the money received can go towards things which make life easier - one of those things being car park charges.

My DF has a badge, I have never ever seen anyone walk as slowly as he does, or in more pain. Honestly a person in a wheel chair has arrived after us, got themselves out and into their car and gone by the time my DF has got into his seat.

He does not get any disability allowance at all - but he has a blue badge.
Its one of these subjects - hard to comment on if you have no actual experience.

Op its a travesty, dreadful, utterly dreadful, fight it"

My parents have a blue badge, but I also don't see why they should get free parking everywhere. Disabled bays are close to the entrance to allow for limited mobility and other issues. They give people with blue badges a helping hand, not a handout.

I don't think you're being unreasonable, but in our area, bus passes have never been able to be used before 9.30, and blue badge parking has never been free: so it seems to be one of those things that depends on your postcode, rather than applied equally across the country. That said, I can see you are fed up that you will now incur costs whereas previously, you did not.

My parents council has charged for parking for blue badge owners for as long as I can remember. It's always been a bit of a mixed bag.

fire it might be easier therefore for your dp to find change and get to a meter to pay!

By that point the limited walking capacity my DF has, may have run out and its back in the car.

You cant blanket everyone with a blue bagde and therefore it MUST BE FREE FOR ALL.

Really, makes SUCH A DIFFERENCE to the lives of those with disabled relatives - how does this impact the people who own the car parks or the councils???

maddness utter maddness.

The inaccessible meters are ridiculous though. I've honestly never thought about that, so thank you for educating me. My parents aren't in wheelchairs, but they couldn't see to use a meter. They always have a relative driving when they use their blue badge.

I don't think that parking should necessarily be free, but I think my local council has it right whereby BB holders are charged a set fee so that they only pay the cost for 1 1/2 hours. They say it recognises that sometimes a BB holder may take 2 hours or more, but if they weren't disabled it wouldn't. I think that's a fairer system. I believe they work it on a car park average.

Scrapping the free companion for people who require it is disgusting. It's not like that little c is handed out willy nilly to everyone. If someone needs someone with them then it shouldn't cost them extra.

I'd also be making HUGE waves about the councillor not being allowed to vote. That's not acceptable. What about any councillors who have bought the anti-DLA rhetoric and believe most disabled people are frauds - I hope they were also not allowed to vote. You can't ban councillors with a strong opinion from voting, that's not democracy and needs a stink kicked up about it.

I've got a Blue Badge and I think that parking should either be free or discounted. I believe it breaches the Equality Act under the "reasonable criteria" when it doesn't.

A person with mobility issues having to pay the exact same amount for parking as a person without is being penalised. If I was to visit one of our nearest towns, which has charged for BB parking for the 10 years I have lived here, and went shopping using my crutches it would take me on average 3 times as long as other people. That means it would cost me more to park and as such I, and others like me, are being discriminated against, due to being disabled.

Our local city shopping centre also charges so I only visit on a Sunday where they charge all day rates.

I can't go by because the nearest bus stop is over a mile from my home. I can't park and ride. I have no choice but to go by car.

the reason why blue badge holders should have free parking is because they have no option but to use the car, I suppose. I hardly ever pay for parking because I am a stingy bugger who would rather use my feet or my bike. this is ok because walking and cycling is actively good for my health, as opposed to the people who might be incapacitated for the week by having to walk 100 yards.

If it's pissing down with rain and I am exhausted and ill I will occasionally use a paying parking space on the basis that otherwise maybe I wouldn't have felt up to doing that mission at all, so better it gets done than not. Being tired and having a cold doesn't go anywhere near the relentless pain and grinding inconvenience of having a disability. So if free parking helps, as far as I am concerned (as a higher rate tax payer), blue badge holders are very welcome to it.

(I also think it's outrageous that car parks at hospitals are so unbelievably, profitably, fleecingly expensive. Nobody goes to hospital for fun and a lot of the people who are going there are at a pretty low ebb. I think there should be some way of validating parking so that it is prohibitively expensive for those without a medical appointment or someone to visit, but free or very cheap for those who just need to go to the hospital. when I went round the hospital before having dc1, a large part of the tour was a complicated explanation aimed mainly at fathers about how to manage and pay for the parking without getting fined. It is appalling that people are driving their partners in labour to hospital - remember you can't even think about getting admitted unless you are in established labour - and then have to jump through hoops to deal with a really complicated and penalty-orientated parking system before they can even think about going into the hospital to support her)

I have to admit to finding these threads informative.

I am not disabled myself an have only very limited experience of BB schemes, dating back 13 years to when we sometimes had to drive my FIL around during the advanced stages of Motor Neurone Disease.

Things like inaccessibility of parking meters for instance. It would not have automatically occurred to me, although now that it has been explained I admit that it probably should have been more obvious.

My son has a BB on the whole I don't mind paying for parking but think that there should be a concession, he is a wheelchair user. To get him out of the car and into his chair takes approx 10 mins. And then 10 mins again to get him back into the car. That's 20 mins just twatting around in the car park!
Those cameras which take your number plate as you enter then time your stay are the worst, and don't take into consideration the extra time it takes.

Our local hospital has started charging to park, this I find hard to take. Like a lot of disabled people he has a lot of medical issues and hospital appointments, at the moment we are visiting the larger out of area hospital once a week. We can visit the local hospital 3-4 times a week. Each time that's £6 we could be there 30 mins or 4 hours depending on how delayed the clinics are. To me this is just a way of tapping the vulnerable people who need to use this service the most.

Hospital car parking charges are a whole can of worms in themselves. A tax on the sick and vulnerable, whether normally disabled or not.

Ds isn't entitled to a blue badge yet but any trip out with him takes so much longer than it would with a NT child of the same age I think often people underestimate the wider struggles of having a disability/a child with a disability.

Where people could Normally just pay for an hours parking to nip into town to do a few jobs for us we would need a couple of hours and probably still wouldn't get to do everything

It also amazes me how far people think DLA money will spread!

Ds has a blue badge and we don't mind paying for parking. When we got it we were relieved we now had enough space to get him out of the car. We live in a rural area so most people drive. Most of the car parks give one hour free after the first hour which is a reasonable compromise.