Questioned over use of Blue Badge

[SuperMeerkat]

Not sure if I’m being unreasonable here. I have epilepsy and it’s been really bad this year. 3 instances of Status (continual seizures) requiring emergency hospitalisation via ambulance plus many more seizures. My last seizure was 3 days ago. Anyway my husband parked up in a disabled bay with me as a passenger and I displayed the Blue Badge. A man immediately beckoned me over and demanded to know why I was using the disabled bay. I was very upset that I was made out to be using it fraudulently. AIBU to be upset or should I just get over it?

Little story, just to stir up the debate.

There's a new hospital near me that was built with an entire floor - 100 spaces - of BB spaces. While regular users have to pay, BB parking is free - you just hold the badge up at the exit barrier (where regular parkers have to insert the paid ticket) and it was raised for you.

I take a friend for appointments and it was rare to find a BB space. (Quite often I'd drop them off and park in a regular space if there was one. Sometimes there were no spaces at all).

Start if this month, the parking firm change the routine, and now BB holders have to physically pass through the parking office to ensure the BB is being used for them.

Last appointment I took my friend to, there were over 75 free BB spaces. A quick chat with the lovely man on the desk revealed that apparently they had stationed someone at the barrier to actually check the BB matched the driver or passenger, and recorded over 50% being fraudulently used. Hence the new regime.

There really are some shitty people out there.

Accessibility in the UK starts off pisspoor, and then declines rapidly, from what I've seen. It's inevitably the very last thing considered in any situation - if it's considered at all. I notice how the BB spaces get quickly repurposed if there are building works, and abused by delivery vehicles when there aren't. Even if by some miracle a shop has a ramp, inside will be strewn with all sorts of obstacles for a wheelchair user. Then you have the lifts that don't work, or when they do are simply display cases for liftful after liftful of prize peaches who ignore the wheelchair user that can't get in because no one will get out.

It's enough to make someone slightly peeved off.

I more bothered by people parking in disabled bay without a badge-next time say its none of his business

Aren't people who park in BB bays without a BB scared of fines?

My mum has a BB and we once genuinely forgot to display her badge when we went to Asda. We came back to the car to find we had a fine and I walked around everywhere trying to get it cancelled, including showing the badge to the Asda store manager. I thought it was best to do it there and then as mum was there.

I appealed the fine to POPLA, who rejected my appeal even though I had a letter from the Asda store manager confirming he had witnessed me, my mum and the badge.

So I still refused to pay the fine, it got increased to £110 and I was threatened with court. I still refused and they wrote to saying 'ok, just pay £15 then'. I still refused and was prepared to argue the case in court. Never heard from them again

Given that > 1 in 5 people have a disability it feels as if BB provision is wholly inadequate. Tho' I've no idea how to balance the parking needs of BB users v Child-friendly parking spaces.

fullfact.org/health/how-many-people-have-disability/

Given that > 1 in 5 people have a disability it feels as if BB provision is wholly inadequate. Tho' I've no idea how to balance the parking needs of BB users v Child-friendly parking spaces.

One way is to make provision even more pisspoor so the less able feel less welcome than they do now. Then we don't need any spaces. I am sure that if we all pull together as a society, we can get back to the1950s and never have to see less able people at all.

Some reading this may think it's just bad humour. Bad I know some reading this will have had the experience of going to the less abled toilet somewhere to discover it's been used as a store room ....

Accessibility in the UK starts off pisspoor, and then declines rapidly, from what I've seen. It's inevitably the very last thing considered in any situation - if it's considered at all. I notice how the BB spaces get quickly repurposed if there are building works, and abused by delivery vehicles when there aren't. Even if by some miracle a shop has a ramp, inside will be strewn with all sorts of obstacles for a wheelchair user. Then you have the lifts that don't work, or when they do are simply display cases for liftful after liftful of prize peaches who ignore the wheelchair user that can't get in because no one will get out

And then the unthinking, oblivious construction workers. I've just walked into my local town centre and some new flats are being built which means one side of the road's pavement is completely fenced off. They don't tell you at the beginning of the road, of course, so wheelchair users can find themselves blocked off, with high kerbs on the pavement and nowhere to go. I've no idea how long this will last for.

This morning though it was worse because an arsehole of a white van man had parked on the opposite side of the road, on the pavement, leaving just enough room for me to squeeze through but no chance for a wheelchair user or someone pushing one of those triangular walking sticks on wheels. So effectively both pavements blocked.

I've no idea how to balance the parking needs of BB users v Child-friendly parking spaces

it's dead easy - do away with child friendly parking spaces. There is no need for them.

BB users should always come first.

Initially I was limiting my rant to car parking ... don't get me started on the selfish fuckers who block pavement ramps for crossing the road.

An awful lot of chatter and talk of provision for the less able loves to use the phrase "wheelchairs and prams" as if they are in any way equivalent. (I know this because I've stuck my warty hooter in on friends behalf). Only the reality is they fucking well are not equivalent. It's the work of a moment to gently bump a pram/pushchair down a 3" kerb, should the ramp or pavement be blocked. Whereas it's fucking impossible to do that in a wheelchair alone (and even sometimes with help, it its a higher kerb). In that situation, you come to a blocked ramp or pavement, then you my friend are turning back and looking (and hoping) for an alternative. It might take you a few hundred metres out of your way (if it exists). But then that's probably part of the DWPs plans to catch you wheeling all over town in order to prove you can really work after all.

Did I mention dog shit on pavements ? Not a problem limited to wheelchair users, of course. But not as much fun as for regular pedestrians either.

How about huge puddles on badly maintained roads and pavements ?

Oh, here's one - people who let their fucking hedges grow over the pavement. Especially the people who have taken many careful years pollarding to weave branches into the overhang to rip open a wheelchair users face - top marks to them.

I wonder if there's a market for a calendar with 12 pictures of daily challenges for the less able ? After all if Roundabouts of Redditch can find a market, then surely "Pavement Perils" is a shoe-in.

I am still rather grumpy.

What do you think the person should have done?
a) Mind their own business
b) Ask politely if you were a genuine user as seen in newspapers so many people abusing badge ... giving you the opportunity to explain not all conditions are visible.
c) Take your badge number and report it so the authorities could investigate and you could then re-evidence your condition

He certainly should not have been "demanding".

I think it's awful people feel they have the right to ask. Someone said it may help them understand why someone has a BB. Why does anyone need to know or understand?! It's none of their business!!! They met the criteria and have a BB. End of. I would ignore them. I had a patient who was questioned using a disabled toilet, she lifted up her burst stoma bag to show them! Sometimes I wonder about people, I really do.

it's dead easy - do away with child friendly parking spaces. There is no need for them.

Are you stark staring mad ? You will find that for retailers £/P&C space is enormous. Far outweighs the pathetic pennies/space a BB brings in.

Believe me, if it wasn't for the law (and even they they manage to swerve provision) retailers would lose BB spaces in a heartbeat.

Accessibility provision is a social function. It requires a society that is happy to pay a little extra overall so that a minority of people who have additional needs can feel included in everyday life.

The moment you move towards a "it's all about the money" society. One which worships the free market and treats any attempt to make a fairer society as weakness, you can guarantee there will be no accessibility, no adaptations, and no help. The less able can just suck up staying in their (accessibility pisspoor) houses and - if society is very kind - look out of the window at the passing world. Just as it used to be.

How many of our 650MPs (so each one is roughly representative of 1/100,000) uses a wheelchair ? There are more Sikh MPs, for fucks sake.

What do you think the person should have done?

Minded his own fucking business! The OP has a badge displayed and that should have been the end of it.

Don't the words 'bugger off arsewipe' exist for exactly this sort of situation?

Probably better not to engage at all.

I do have a 100% surefire way to prevent BB abuse, but the margins of this screen are too small to fit it all in

Ask politely if you were a genuine user as seen in newspapers so many people abusing badge ... giving you the opportunity to explain not all conditions are visible
But what is the questioner actually going to do? What answer are they looking for, given that the person has the BB and can show that it has their photo on it? It’s NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS - no matter how much abuse of the system goes on, it’s not up to Joe Public to police it because in that moment there’s NOTHING THEY CAN DO ABOUT IT! They’re being nasty busybodies, that’s all .

Random questioning your BB useage is ridiculous I don't understand the cheek of some people I really don't .

Sorry xpost with Totally !

Shame the man the OP encountered couldn't take his "concern" and turn it into a willingness to spend a few pennies a week on better provision for all less able folk.

But then it would take the edge of being a hypocritical cunt that seems to be lick crack cocaine for some.

like crack cocaine FFS.

"Ask politely if you were a genuine user as seen in newspapers so many people abusing badge ... giving you the opportunity to explain not all conditions are visible."

It's not my job to explain anything to randoms. Ds needs our full attention in situations like this so I can do without dicks bothering us.

Ask politely if you were a genuine user as seen in newspapers so many people abusing badge ... giving you the opportunity to explain not all conditions are visible

WTF am I reading? Why should they have to explain?
Someone who knows far more about the users disability than us has deemed them worthy of a blue badge. That is literally all we need to know.

Disabled and ill people are fair game though Elbeagle not only have they got their own stuff to deal with they have to muster up the energy to politely explainthemselves to Mr nosey in the carpark!

Definitely agree with everyone else. Not his business!!

BB's are given to people based on medical reasons. These are based on professional diagnosis and after thorough investigation of all circumstances.

Ignore if you can. Tell them to report you if they feel inclined to do so. The fact that they don't think you need or deserve a BB is their problem, not yours. It is not your job to offer an explanation.

People are such judgemental nosy bastards it's none of their business

Sorry they upset you