WIBU to park in a disabled space?

[FairfaxAikman]

Ordinarily I wouldn't dream of it.

Our local supermarket closes off half the car park with barriers overnight to deter boy racers. It doesn't reopen until after 8am. ALL of the parent and child spaces are in the closed off side.

DS is still small enough to be in his car seat. In the past if I've arrived before 8am I've parked in a normal space but every time I've ended up with someone next to me, making it hard to get DS back in.

There is a row of 10 disabled spaces, all empty. WIBU to park in the furthest one from the shop?

Here we go again.

The number of disabled spaces is set down in law. This is no negotiable. If you are arguing for flexibility around how many are provided then you are effectively arguing to get rid of the law.

Law has to be black and white. You can't have 'you must provide x number of spaces except for times when you don't think so many disabled people are around, then you can decide to reallocate them to whoever'. Because you would be getting rid of the legal right to a space and replacing in with 'to be decided by the carpark owner'. We have a precedent for that, known as 'the whole of bloody history until the law came in following years and years of fighting'. And guess what? It didn't work.

So stop trying to dress it up as 'common sense' or 'being flexible' or 'some other bollocks'. What you are doing is arguing for the removal of disabled peoples' right to access.

It was disablist on the last hundred threads and it is disablist on this one too.

Think the thread is losing the plot now. No one is advocating removing BB spaces, just making a sensible decision to slightly move them around so that BEFORE 8am ONLY there are one or two parent spaces ( of which there are currently zero at that time) and 8 BB spaces (of which there are currently 10 at that time, which are clearly not used to capacity as the OP was told to park there). Neither tricky to understand nor discriminatory.

I got into a conversation with a gentleman the other day. Every single blue badge space was taken. I said there weren’t enough. He suggested I park in parent and child and I had to admit that I didn’t have a blue badge. I just thought it was awful not to have enough spaces. And then I hobbled away. Thankful that my pain and mobility issues aren’t severe enough to merit a blue badge.

Bollocks To Brexit, and where the number of spaces is more than the minimum? Where stores choose to provide more? Then it IS a matter of common sense.

There are places with a higher proportion of elderly, for example, which may warrant a much higher BB space rate. Or others where for whatever reason the local demographic means thst the legal minimum is fine.

Remove BB badges in favour of P&C spaces = disablist

Temporarily remove BB badges in favour of P&C spaces = disablist

Advocating for the removal of disabled provision in favour of able people = disablist

@MNHQ Why, for the love of cheeses, are disabled people still having to come on this forum to defend their provision against able people who want to take it away or reduce it? Why?

No one is advocating removing BB spaces

Actually, if you RTFT, some are.

BollockstoBrexit - MNHQ are already on it. For what it's worth, for once they agree that the whole thread and some commenters are ableist.

I don't know why I bother with these threads anymore. I have to fight in RL and then justify the need for facilities for those with disability on here.

Bish - I sometimes wonder that, but if I change one person's mind about parking in a BB space then its worth it.

What is "ableist"? Doesn't that imply prejudice against able bodied people?

Its sad isnt it. Every now and again a gf will start a thread like this.
The only intention is to cause hurt and upset. Look at the thread title.
The op knew what they were doing.
I hate seeing disabled people and their carers hurtin this way and wish mn hq would just zap these threads.

I feel the same. They want our parking spaces. They want our toilets. They want our space on the bus. They want our benefits and free goat. And they'll spend eternity coming up with justifications and arguments for it.

But I'm still waiting for the thread from someone wanting my disability.

No, ableist is discrimination against disabled people. Sometimes people say disablist, but ableist and ableism is more common.

Even if you were to park in a Blue Badge space, there is no guarantee you'd be able to open the door to get the kid in. I am losing count of the number of times I see a car squeezed in on the hashed lines between BB spaces. And this is in carparks with plenty of spaces available. Just not right outside the door. I guess they think it doesn't matter as to their mind it isn't actually a BB space...

Why swap two blue badge spaces for two parent and child ones? Why not swap 2/3 ordinary spaces that are outside the barrier for parent and child spaces? I assume the legal requirements for bb spaces are applicable whenever the store is open (which is why they have put the barriers behind them).

I hate seeing disabled people and their carers hurtin this way and wish mn hq would just zap these threads.

I don't. There are posters out there who will have their eyes opened by threads like these. People who will see that disablism is alive and kicking and, hopefully, be horrified by it. Not the ones who are getting their kick from arguing with disabled people and gleefully making their days a bit shitter than they usually are. Those fuckers don't give a shit. But the others, that read and process and silently see it for what it is.

I'm an HCP and also a bb holder....having a bb allows me to park near the entrance of the hospital I work at, and allows me to continue to work
I do feel guilty about using this parking space as I am still able to walk- but have neuropathy and limited exercise capacity due to a chronic autoimmune illness and am on long term chemo for this
However, if I parked in the staff car park, I'd then have a long walk up an exposed pathway ( very wet and windy in the winter) and I'd then be unable to do my job when I get in the building as it would take me a good while to recover due to extreme fatigue and joint pain....to the numerous visitors who abuse the bb car park , I must look like a cheeky mare who can't be bothered to park in the staff car park...although I see so many visitors park in the disabled car park who have no bb but hey they're only just popping in to hospital to collect a relative or get their bloods done, so that makes it ok

There was a similar thread no too long ago with the OP complaining about empty BB bays that went the same way and eventually got deleted.

Why people keep comparing necessary disabled spaces with complimentary parent and child spaces really baffles me.

Blue Badge envy?

Groundhog dayb

Could be HiHo. I've lost count of the amount of people who have told me they wished they were lucky enough to have a blue badge.

Yeah, it feels really lucky to have one today. I can't even use it this evening to see the fireworks display with my DS as I'm in too much pain to get out of bed. I can't eat or sleep and my strongest painkillers aren't touching it. So lucky.

I don't wish these threads were deleted, I wish the ableist posters were banned. This has been going on for all of the 10 years I've been on MN. I don't know anyone in RL who moans about BB spaces. I've come across them online and in Fb groups but not in person. I really don't get it. Why are people so het up over a piece of tarmac that means someone, whose life is already really difficult, can get out and about with a bit more ease? Being able to park in a BB space is a necessity to me, I need to be able to open my door wide and I need to be able to hoist my mobility scooter out.

I've lived all over England and Wales. There aren't nearly enough BB spaces and I've never seen one empty during the Christmas rush.

Yes you are being unreasonable you are not disabled.
I would ask in store why they block off the parent and child spaces and what they recommend you do ?

No, ableist is discrimination against disabled people. Sometimes people say disablist, but ableist and ableism is more common.

OK. Doesn't seem logical, Thanks - I assumed that must be what it meant but was confused.

I would ask in store why they block off the parent and child spaces and what they recommend you do ?

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