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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Questioned over use of Blue Badge

209 replies

SuperMeerkat · 15/12/2019 22:37

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?

OP posts:
Spikeyball · 16/12/2019 11:32

Perhaps rather than explaining I will ask them to get ds in or out of the car and when he bites them on the face, they will realise that actually yes, he does need the space.

RB68 · 16/12/2019 11:34

Its just for me - who the hell appointed them the BB Warden - its none of their business, if there is a blue badge and it belongs to someone using the car (and getting out etc) then that is all they need to know.

A friend of mine has this issue - on the face of it amazing 5 ft 11 slim build blue eyed blonde - reality has been near death - two strokes, reverse artery syndrome thing, complete loss of function of one lung 20% in the other, cluster migraines most days yad yada yada - she is upright and walking and people question it all the time.

She now says, and so what is your name, any letters after that? Are they medical...right so what the fuck would you know then as to why I am entitled to this badge.

victoriashleigh · 16/12/2019 11:40

Sorry this happened to you, I can’t people saying “he was just checking...” as if that makes any difference? Unless he is some kind of parking attendant or traffic warden and was on duty he has no right to question you.

On a lighter note, maybe this guy would like to pop round to area and police the parent and child spaces in his spare time. So many middle aged men and young women (always seem to be one of those two!) in brand new Audi’s with invisible children...

TriangularRatbag · 16/12/2019 12:01

I've not time for links but Google BB fraud, theft etc and the evidence is there.

@CactusAndCacti

This is a very transparent cop out. You are simply wrong. There are no statistics on the proportion of unlawful blue badge fraud. It would be impossible to collect them.

Mummyoflittledragon · 16/12/2019 12:12

I am a bb holder. I went to b&q on Saturday to get paint samples. After a couple of minutes I realised I was close to running out of energy and at risk of collapsing. I therefore started to return to my car, walking very solely. I was nearly at the car and crossing a zebra crossing by the entrance to the store. A car approached from one of the side lanes and turned onto the road I was crossing. The driver (male) completely ignored me and drove across the crossing inches from me. Had I fallen (I’m not steady on my feet) I would have been under the wheels of his car. The shock at what had happened took the very last amount of energy from me and I stumbled the last couple of metres back to my car but ran out of energy before I could get in. Then had a panic attack. This is my reality of how the disabled are treated for a large part... so the bb police and any questions can fuck right off.

SerendipityJane · 16/12/2019 12:13

This is a very transparent cop out. You are simply wrong. There are no statistics on the proportion of unlawful blue badge fraud. It would be impossible to collect them.

(One of) the only sure ways to detect BB fraud, is to check that a displayed badge is being used for and with the person it belongs to. And the only way to do that is to wait by a car until the driver and passenger either get out or return to get back in. Even then, (I believe) only an authorised person - so a policeman or traffic warden - can actually demand to see the rear of the badge.

The other is as I described upthread, a system which requires the badge holder to present themselves before leaving. Which when implemented reduced (presumed) BB fraudulent usage by over 50%.

Be interesting to see how leaving the EU affects BB and BB parking provision. Currently the UKs provision is in line with EU regulations. For some reason I can't see anything improving, so if there is to be a change, it will be for the worse. As if that were possible in some cases.

Mrsjayy · 16/12/2019 12:26

I dont understand what the EU has to do with BB parking you can't revoke accesibility because uk is out of Europe.

Mrsjayy · 16/12/2019 12:28

Blue badge parking is different in different uk counties and countries so not inline with "Eu regulations"

TriangularRatbag · 16/12/2019 12:30

Hi @SerendipityJane, perhaps I was wrong to say "impossible" to collect statistics, but prohibitively and disproportionately difficult and expensive. And @CactusAndCacti is clearly wrong, and trying to bluff!

Sunflowersok · 16/12/2019 12:33

It’s absolutely NO ONE else’s business why you have a blue badge. You have a right to keep your medical issues disclosed... or anything in your life for that matter.

Anyone asks you again just tell them to keep their noses out!

RiftGibbon · 16/12/2019 12:38

I would never challenge someone with a blue badge. However, if someone had parked in a disabled parking space without a badge on display I might suggest to them that they display the badge or they would be at risk of a fine.
Far too many people think blue badge = wheelchair.

Original poster
SuperMeerkat · 16/12/2019 12:49

I wonder if it happens again I should ask the busy-body to show me his/her official ID which gives them the right to demand to see my BB 😂😂

OP posts:
Thistle23 · 16/12/2019 12:49

not that I'm saying you have to, but my mum has a purple wheelchair sticker saying not every disabilty is visible .

She gets upset when people see her getting out the car and keep looking as if why should she have a badge.

Havaina · 16/12/2019 12:54

We also got told off by a woman with her husband and baby. She saw me and my mum park in a P&C bay in Sainsbury’s and made a comment saying ‘funny how people without children use the P&C bays’. I said to her politely that we are in a P&C bay because all disabled bays are full and my mum needs a rest after 50 yards and that she was welcome to look at the BB in the dashboard. She then hid behind her husband who said to me ‘ALRIGHT’ as if I was the instigator Hmm

Honeybee85 · 16/12/2019 12:56

YANBU

Who is he to question your right to use that space? It’s none of his business.
I would have told him that plus to stop harassing you, and no further explanation.

PhilCornwall1 · 16/12/2019 13:01

I wonder if it happens again I should ask the busy-body to show me his/her official ID which gives them the right to demand to see my BB 😂😂

Yes, you should. No member of the public has the right to question you over it.

SerendipityJane · 16/12/2019 13:18

I dont understand what the EU has to do with BB parking you can't revoke accesibility because uk is out of Europe.

Currently UK BB provision is offered under: eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:31998H0376

which will cease to apply when we leave. At that point the UK will be under no obligation to have a Blue Badge scheme at all. Maybe it won't. Or maybe it will introduce a "pay £1,000 a year for one" scheme ? Who knows ? Not I. And as you point out, not you either.

9ofpentangles · 16/12/2019 13:25

This thread is making ne sad. I'm in the process of applying for a badge for my mother and hadn't thought of this as being part of having a Blue Badge. As if needing one isn't enough....

Yes, quote 'not all disabilities are visible' as it says on many public disabled toilets now so harassment is obviously a big problem

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 16/12/2019 13:37

When one of Tony Blair's children was offered a place at Bristol University, Cherie Blair came to inspect the place, and she and her bodyguards (she had more bodyguards with her than Prince Charles did when he turned up in Bristol that year) parked their cars in the only two disabled parking spaces in front of the department her son was going to be in.

If the able-bodied wife of the current prime minister feels entitled to take up the disabled spaces like that, it really doesn't surprise me if anyone else does. Disgust me, but not surprise me.

Mrsjayy · 16/12/2019 14:01

Brexit isn't going to cause the demise of the blue badge but nice try Serndiptyjane

dreichXmas · 16/12/2019 14:03

I used to take out a dc who had a blue badge and often used to get asked if I was disabled when getting out of the car, mostly because I was very young I think.
I just used to say no, when dc left the car it was fairly obvious that he was!
So busybodies are a definite issue in my experience.

ViaSacra · 16/12/2019 14:12

A lot of people out there enjoy playing the role of Supreme Saviour of Disabled People, despite being hugely ignorant about the people they think they're helping. This then leads them to attack anyone they perceive to be using 'disabled spaces' incorrectly - they feed off the feeling that they, a righteous person, are challenging non-righteous people.

My niece, in her early twenties, has cystic fibrosis, and is constantly being told by people in their forties and fifties to get out of the priority seats on trains and buses. Accompanied by ageist comments about 'young people these days'.

My niece politely tells them that she has less than a 50% chance of reaching the age they are currently, has to do several hours of treatment each day to stay alive, and needs a seat in case she gets a coughing fit and passes out. That shuts them up.

Sirzy · 16/12/2019 14:15

We have been questioned parking there with Ds before now, I have learnt to just ignore then --as it pisses them of even more—

SerendipityJane · 16/12/2019 14:18

Brexit isn't going to cause the demise of the blue badge but nice try Serndiptyjane

I didn't say it would. What I am saying (wish I could type this slowly) is that currently the UKs BB scheme is operated in alignment with the provisions across the EU, and that come 1st Feb, it won't be, unless it's specifically baked into some deal somewhere.

From that point on, the UK will be free to set whatever BB policies it chooses to. Or not, as the case may be. Since we've already established by dint of no argument that BB provision is a pain in the arse for most retailers, it will be interesting to see if provision is improved, maintained, or reduced.

Feel free to respond to the point I made, not the one in your head.

AJPTaylor · 16/12/2019 14:45

I was in Tesco Car Park.
I was driving along next to the disabled spaces to exit the cat park.
I stopped to allow a car in a bb space to reverse out in front of me because it was busy and I am nice. Whilst they did so, an older man knocked on my window to tell me the space was for disabled people. I know, said I. I'm just letting him out because I'm nice. There then followed the most ludicrous argument where he tried to tell me that I would have parked in it if I had been challenged, despite me having a car full of shopping.