Or insensitive to ask council erase disabled parking bay outside my house

[Scottishnurse]

Semi detached house with shared entrance with NDN. Lovely elderly couple next door, husband died beginning of this year. The husband had a disabled bay painted before we moved in 5 years ago. When he died the wife gave the car up.

So now the neighbour across the street uses it. I dont feel comfortable parking in it. Its also quite big and without it an extra car could park on the street.

WIBU to ask the council to remove it? Would it be insensitive to my widowed NDN?

I would ask them to remove it, and I say that as a blue badge holder.

@Ryannah

You can’t park in it and neither can your neighbour. If there are no disabled people living nearby then it’s a wasted space. So I’d ask for it to be removed so residents can park there.

Anyone can park there if the lines are white

Yes , you can ask for it to be removed.
No guarantee they will rush to do it though.

My parents had a similar issue. When I called the council they said that, disabled parking is payable every year. If its not renewed, they send someone over to remove it. In that particular case, 6 months later they did automatically remove it.

Round here the council remove them as soon as they are no longer needed, so if you contact your council they might be quite happy to remove it.

In my council you have to pay to get a disabled space outside your house so they might well have paid for it.

Diagram.

If the disabled space was gone 2 cars could get in-between the bottom of thr space and the driveway

Well if the marking is removed, surely the neighbour over the road will still use it , not sure what the problem is.

@thereisonlyoneofme

Well if the marking is removed, surely the neighbour over the road will still use it , not sure what the problem is.

well OP doesnt use it as it is a disabled spot, so if the markings are removed she will be able to use it....

If NOR is the only one who uses it currently, it stays empty when NOR doesnt park there

What Beautiful3 wrote seems right to me. The disabled parking spaces in my road have only been for specific residents and have been removed when the residents have moved. I remember this because one person also had a ramp put in which the new owners removed. They didn't need it so it was entirely their right and choice but it made me think how useful it would be if we had a system for alerting other people who needed wheelchair access to their front door that there was a house for sale that might suit them.

If the neighbour is not disabled then yes I would phone the council and ask them to remove it to create more space for everyone else

If it’s just a disabled bay - so white lines only and no signage saying disabled badge holder only
then the bay is discretionary and anyone blue badge or not can park in the bay
Most people without a badge aren’t asshole and won’t park in a discretionary bay even though they can
My late father house still has a disabled parking bay outside his house and so do other neighbours who passed away years ago

www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/rights-and-responsibilities-blue-badge-holders.
Curious about this!

Blue badge holder can be a passenger

Thanks @TractorAndHeadphones, I didn’t know it was regional! You learn something new every day

@Marmite17

Blue badge holder can be a passenger

Not for on street parking like this case. Unless very good reason why you can’t get out of the car at the curb and wait while driver parks a few metres away. Ie disabled child who could run off while you park say 3 parking spaces away or parent with dementia.

If it was just for passengers then million of them would be in streets up and down the country. If it meant own private space.

Discretionary bays vary. Many are legacy bays and don't have current signage, which means they are at least 10 years out of date and have not been renewed by the person who had them put in.

That's the case with the 2 outside our house and a couple more through town.

We ignore them and park as though they are not there, unless someone has a need, in which case we all pretend they are real for the day. We're pretty friendly about it 🙂

My husband had a disabled bay, about a year after he passed away the council just came out and removed the paint/signs. I wondered if they were being sensitive to my loss by waiting so long.

@ShinyHappyPoster

I don't understand how you think another car would be able to park if it was removed. I've never seen a domestic disabled space that was the size of two cars and since your neighbour is using it, then no parking space is being lost. Is it that you want to park there instead of your neighbour? Really there should be a diagram.

Our neighbour has a disabled space that’s the size of 2 car spaces I think it’s because he has a minibus picking him up occasionally so it has been made big enough for that, but if it wasn’t needed by someone, 2 regular cars would be able to park in the same space

Other people on this thread have already said it, which is that advisory bays outside individual houses are not restricted or policed by council/police at least in our area. They are policed by politeness and consideration!

Controlled bays with a post/ticket system for blue badges are and you can be fined if you park in them.

Just ask the council to remove the lines, but technically you can probably park there anyway which is what your neighbour is already doing.