To think some busy car parks have an excessive amount of disabled spaces?

[coffeeforone]

Every time I go to my local Sainsbury's, i very rarely find a free Parent & Child space, or any space that is not at the very far end of the car park. I've noticed this more recently as I'm heavily pregnant and have a 2 year old so would love a P&C space. There are only 12 parent & child bays, but there are 18 disabled spaces, the vast majority of them are always free. Given the ratio of parents with young children to blue badge holders in a supermarket at any one time, would it not be more sensible to have, say 12 disabled and 18 P&C bays, or even half & half? I've noticed this in places like IKEA and other big supermarkets too (but haven't actually counted the bays!)

The whole point is that disabled bays SHOULD BE EMPTY because that’s how they are then available for a disabled person to use!!! How hard is this to understand? Empty BB bays means enough provision is being made - not that too much provision is being made. Jeez.

If the law specifies a certain percentage of spaces, perhaps it should be more tailored by location? Could that work? Because it would seem that they're not getting it right anywhere.

So because some imaginary places are empty you propose the removal of disabled peoples' right to minimum provision.

Ds may not look like he needs the proximity to the door. Parking close may mean we don’t need to use his chair. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t need the space.

Shows how ducked we are when even disabled people are judging us for using it though doesn’t it

gingham did you really just say that?

gingham I have come to think the badge system is terribly abused

A minority of BB’s are misused. I think the difficulty with basing it on personal experiences, a bit like the ‘empty spaces’ is it doesn’t give a true reflect. It also gives able bodied people a false sense of entitlement to question users about their disabilities.

2.8 million blue badges are issued in the uk. Approx 1,000 prosecutions for misuse. Let’s speculate and say the figure must be at least double that or even 10,000, 20,000 and so on. It’s still a small minority and hardly an epidemic!

gingham if someone has a BB then they need it just as much as you! It’s not disability top trumps, you know.

Gingham, you're just making things worse now. If someone has a blue badge, they have a blue badge and can park there, whether they look disabled or not. Are you magical? Can you see someone's cancer? Colostomy bag? Painful prosthetic leg? Crippling anxiety? Spinal injury? Fibromyalgia?

No, that's right. You can't. Bell end.

*mycatisbonkers here's the bit that some seem incapable of grasping, the only way you can reduce the number of spaces in these imaginary empty places is to reduce the legal required ratio. This would then apply to ALL carparks INCLUDING THE BUSY ONES WHERE DISABLED PEOPLE ALREADY CAN'T PARK and all future new carparks.

So what is being advocated will result in the loss of essential provision for disabled people. IT IS DISABLISM*

This exactly. Well said. I’m still waiting for someone to come back and post now they understand!

Next year there are going to be even more people with invisible disabilities being able to have a badge.
I don't know how all the 'they shouldn't have a badge/ that's not their badge/ they don't need the space' types are going to cope with all the extra tutting and pulling people up they are going to have to do.

Courtney555 you’ve dived right in, attacking and making sweeping statements when it is abundantly clear you haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about.

In short, the issue is this.

Someone wants something and decides that disabled facilities are fair game. Because it’s the easy (and lazy) route.

Why take something from disabled people? Why even consider thinking that is ok?

That is the definition of disablist. Just assuming that disabled people can have things removed from them because it suits able bodied people rather than able bodied people a) considering disabled people as actual humans and b) campaigning for their own shit instead of expecting it to be removed from disabled people.

When you live with this kind of low level bull shit on a daily basis, it becomes wearing.

So it may be new to you, but it is not to many.

Have reported your disablist post, Gingham.

Fml gingham who died and put you in charge of deciding how disabled someone has to be to get a blue badge.

Gingham, unless you're a human x-Ray machine you won't be able to see my disabilities, doesn't make them less real though dickhead

As a disabled person I find there aren't enough spaces, and while the cars may (mostly) be displaying a badge, the people who get out of the cars do not in general seem to need that proximity to the shop door

You wouldn’t have been able to see my Mum’s bags, nor the tumours, nor that she had 3 major organs removed, or that just a wee walk from the car round the supermarket and back was enough to put her in bed for a day and a half. Those wee bits of independence were what kept her going, and whenever she was challenged (sadly it happened more than you’d expect) it chipped away at her a little more each time. It destroyed her confidence in the end.

She looked able bodied, even when she had had massive operations, chemo, radio and all the rest of it. She looked perfectly healthy right up until a month before she died.

One of my friends who died of cancer looked perfectly healthy until literally the day before she died.

I’m saddened to see such ignorance from someone who is disabled. I’d expect you to understand.

I think either gingham is utterly ashamed at what she put after rereading their post or flounced off because no one agreed with them. Either way, when we turn in each other, judge each other by playing disability top trumps then it's a really sad day for humanity.

As I've said before, disabled people can be just as dickish as able people.

WhirlyGigWhirlyGig aye you’re right. I guess I’m just saddened to see it from someone who understands how it feels if that makes any sense. Like I said, I don’t have a blue badge, but I am disabled so I get it. Sometimes humans just really depress me.

Courtney you can think my post is ridiculous till the cows come home your thinking is. There is a tonne of empty disabled bays why can't I use it they are obviously not needed so where is the harm ..

Gingham it really isn't who is the most disabled I feel your frustration of not being able to go about your day if you can't find a space but that really isn't other peoples fault they have their own struggles to deal with and a BB space lightens their loadjust as it does yours.

Usually you have taken my post out of context I was replying to another poster

Whilst I of course understand there does need to be ample disabled spaces I do think 40% is excessive for leisure centre. I find it highly unlikely that anywhere near 40% of their clientele are blue badge holders

You find it highly unlikely? Of course disabled people don't go to leisure centres 🙄. Just because a pool looks to you like it doesn't have disabled access does not mean it has not. Thank your lucky stars, along with the OP that you don't face far worse difficulties daily other than finding a parking space, unlike some of the other posters on this thread.

Oh fuck off. Surely no one is this thick!

i do think its excessive sometimes. I so often see an absolutely rammed car park, with about 10 empty disabled spots. I do think its better that there are too many than too few, but it is frustrating sometimes. As far as provisions for disabled people go, I think this parking thing is paying lipservice, because most disabled dont have mobility issues, and dont require specialised parking, and yet services and benefits for disabled are cut left right and centre. Public perception of the disabled is at an all time low, and yet everyone thinks theyre mother fucking theresa, virtue signalling about parking spaces.