Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

To be fuming about this

99 replies

elliejjtiny · 18/12/2015 19:34

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.

OP posts:

PoppyAutumnScarlettRuby · 19/12/2015 19:59

My dd has a blue badge and in our local authority car parking is not free, her hospital appointments fall under another local authority which does give free parking. I don't mind paying but if it worked out the other way round it would certainly be expensive given her health problems. I'd much rather a larger space and pay than a normal space that's free.

It's a little unreasonable to be fuming, local authorities just don't have the budget anymore and they have to ensure the needs of all not just a minority; although I agree that you shouldn't have to battle for every entitlement and that seems to have become the norm.

Scarydinosaurs · 19/12/2015 20:01

The stupid thing is that by taking away the 'free' perk, it just means more people will park on yellow lines, or, you're less likely to go out and spend money and actually make yourself more ill by reducing your mobility.

Isn't it shit enough that you're disabled? The council just want to make it fucking worse all round?

YANBU OP.

honkinghaddock · 19/12/2015 20:09

For me the difficulty in getting blue badges is a bigger issue.

EleanorRigsby · 19/12/2015 20:19

cuts have to be made somewhere
If you believe the Tory w*nkers in charge of your country.
How about making cuts to the number of councillors or the benefits they receive rather than targeting vulnerable and already disadvantaged groups....no offense meant.

knobblyknee · 19/12/2015 20:26

It was the bit about the councillor not being allowed to vote that finished it for me. I mean. Seriously?

Where do you live that utterly loathes the disabled so much?

Inertia · 19/12/2015 21:29

No flaming from me. I detest the way that people with disabilities are being targeted for the most punishing cuts in support- it's symptomatic of the way this government are demonising people with disabilities, making them out to be wastrels who squander everyone's taxes on fripperies like mobility aids and nappies.

As a previous poster said, the amount saved by something like this parking charge is unlikely to be large, yet the inconvenience and costs incurred (and sheer physical/ logistical impossibilities of obeying) have a huge impact on the lives of people already fighting ongoing battles for things the rest of us take for granted.

AdjustableWench · 19/12/2015 23:32

YANBU. That's awful.

Of course disabled parking should be free. I'm a bit surprised by some of the comments on this thread from people who think blue badge holders should pay for parking. In my view, unless you've actually lived day-to-day for many years with a family member who has a serious disability, you should probably shut up and listen instead of offering uninformed 'opinions'.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 19/12/2015 23:50

Surely it is illegal to ban the disabled councilor from voting. Unless only councilors who are illiterate are allowed to vote on libraries and only non drivers are allowed to vote on highway maintenance.

Original poster

elliejjtiny · 20/12/2015 00:58

Found a link that still works (article I originally read was on "taunton today" which evaporated into a puff of smoke after 24 hours) link

OP posts:

Jux · 12/01/2016 17:43

I'm disabled. I use a mobility scooter when I'm out. In our town, buses are infrequent, most don't run daily. If I go a long way to a specific spot I can board the bus in my scooter from one specific place which is quite a long way away, and has no shelter so it's great in this weather. But I can only get on if there's no other scooter user there already as there's only room for one at a time. The next bus is likely to be about 3 hours later, or perhaps 6. I don't use the bus anyway, because they are slow and my bladder can't cope for more than 30 mins between loo stops. I can't get the train as my (perfectly ordinary) scooter is bigger than SW Trains can allow as their carriages are not designed for mobility scooters - steps to the door, narrow aisles, very little space at the carriage ends so manouevrability is very difficult and restricted.

So, if I need to get to the hospital, or into town where the cheap shops are, we have to drive; the bus takes an hour and using the train is a no-no unless I am well enough and the pain is low, meaning I can just about get from the car park to the ticket machine, rest, onto the train, off the train, walk to platform lift, rest, leave the station and then I will have to have organised Shopmobility to meet me at the station with a scooter I hire for £5, and have to give back at about 3.30. So I've never spent a full day shopping with dd. Never.

There are few jobs here, except shelf fillers at supermarkets, which obviously I can't do. I am pretty much unemployable, so I volunteer. My earnings are nil.

I felt so guilty having a BB that when it ran out last year I didn't renew it. That's due to the sort of attitudes on this thread.

So my life has been confined to a very small town for over a year now. I can barely remember what it's like to be anywhere else. And yet, for years I was a highly skilled professional working in one of the premier companies at their hq in central London on a bloody good wage. I was out every night. I had my own flat. I had a great life and was a hard working productive member of society.

Now I'm a drain on society and any tiny thing society gives me is resented. Thanks.

I am reading The Unit atm. I think there are quite a few people who would think that what they do in that book is a bloody good idea. At moments like these, I do too. I imagine I'd have made my last donation by now.

ohdearlord · 12/01/2016 17:48

If you qualify for a BB is it also likely you're managing on DLA etc? (I genuinely don't know.)

SoleBizzz · 12/01/2016 17:51

My DS is blind and our blue badge was stolen in 2092. Never bothered replacing it.

NoAdventureNoTime · 12/01/2016 18:18

Surely free parking is because a disabled person may take longer than an able bodied person, and so if they have to pay per hour for parking they are essentially being taxed on their disability.

ozymandiusking · 12/01/2016 18:21

One of the reasons disabled people didn't pay for parking was because of their disability they often are unable to work and therefore have a lower income.Do people really begrudge them this?
What a hard society we have become.

TheCuttingRdge · 12/01/2016 19:16

I really don't get the parking meter element.

Surely if you can drive a car, you can use a meter.

If you are not driving, then surely the person doing the driving can get the ticket?

Becca19962014 · 12/01/2016 19:58

Not all meters are accessible to people who are disabled - some are on pavements that have no dropped curb for a wheelchair or, if they too high to be used or taking, a hospital car park I know that charges, the spaces are by the door but the meter on the other side of the car park (also not accessible but the point is they can be far from where the BB spaces are.

if someone is driving for you (other than friend of family) then it's likely the disabled person is paying for that help and how would that work anyway in terms of knowing which BB holder has someone driving them (and should pay) and those who don't?

Becca19962014 · 12/01/2016 19:59

ohdearlord you can get a BB and not qualify for DLA.

TheCuttingRdge · 13/01/2016 19:17

Becca that doesn't make any sense!

Why does it matter of the driver is paid or not, they can still get the ticket surely?

Becca19962014 · 13/01/2016 19:32

I was referring to the total cost of parking for the disabled person - cost of paying for someone to drive and then for a ticket on top - a situation ive been in and it can be very costly.

LalaLyra · 13/01/2016 19:45

Surely if you can drive a car, you can use a meter.

Not if they are too high or in a position that a wheelchair cannot get into.

The machine at our local doctors is just on a little step thing in the middle of the car park. If there are 4 cars parked in the spaces you'd never get a wheelchair to the machine, and anyone with sticks or crutches would struggle to shimmy between the cars.

EverybodyHatesATourist · 13/01/2016 20:19

Surely if you can drive a car, you can use a meter

My friend is a wheelchair user, she can drive because she has an adapted car, she cannot use a meter because of limited mobility in her hands. Some of the cars available for disabled users are amazing in how they have been adapted.

I can work, if I need more money - to run a car for example - I can study to find a better paid job, do overtime, take on a second job.
To get to the shops I can walk, bike, ride a moped, call a taxi, hop on a train or bus .

My friend cannot work, cannot earn money.
She can't walk, bike, ride a moped. She can call a taxi but it has to be one that will take a motorised wheelchair. She can catch a bus but God forbid she wants to use the wheelchair space if there's a parent with a buggy already there.
To catch a train she has to give twenty-four hours notice and then face the grumbling from people who don't want to shift for her to get past, or who think their bike/ buggy has more need of her reserved space.

Some people really do begrudge every little bit of help the disabled get, don't they?
OP YANBU.

DamedifYouDo · 13/01/2016 20:24

No free parking in my area for BB holders, I think you might find that in many areas it is standard to pay for parking. Some car parks allow BB holders to park for 2 hrs and pay the 1hr fee or similar to allow for things taking longer due to mobility needs.

PrimeDirective · 13/01/2016 21:37

Oh the wonderful perks you get as a disabled person! They get far too much help and it really is about time they felt some of the cuts too, and suffer some of the hardships that the rest of society has to deal with.

I despair at the level of pig-headed ignorance from some of the posters on this thread.

MammaTJ · 13/01/2016 23:09

Taunton is my county town and I am disgusted!

Flip

1 2 3 4