To use disabled parking bays when on crutches?

[Glamgwen]

Boring parking question. I’m currently on crutches following on operation. I need to park in a multi-storey car park today (no other options) that doesn’t have a lift. I can’t manage stairs or slopes, so can only park on the ground floor but these spaces are all disabled. Would it be acceptable for me to park in one & leave a note in the window explaining the situation & giving my mobile number in case anyone with a blue badge needs the space? I should add that there are loads of disabled spaces & I’ve never known them all to be in use.

Be prepared to get a ticket.

I took my disabled mum to a supermarket to do her shopping but we forgot to display her blue badge.

We were given a ticket and even with a letter signed by the supermarket managed, proof he saw the blue badge etc etc, we had tye devil’s job getting the ticket cancelled.

Totally agree

You can’t get temporary badges. However, what you can do, and this may apply to the OP depending on the severity of her injury, is ask the relevant LA if they have a concessionary parking system for temporary illness/injury. They don’t have to but the government has asked that LAs consider this, and where it may be appropriate in their areas, precisely because the government have decided not to extend the blue badge system to temporary blue badges (due to extra costs and difficulty in administering it). I imagine the threshold is high though. Also, depends on which country of the union you are in - I believe temporary badges are available in some cases in Wales.

this.

I'm disabled (stroke), with a blue badge, and quite often cannot get a parking space close to the shops/doctor's etc., because someone without a badge has parked there.

And would they just wait in their car while you took maybe half an hour to hobble back and move your car?

No. No BB, no space. Also, you'll get a ticket or clamped.

<b>Really what is needed is some form of accessible parking provision, say issued along with a sick note that allows people to use disabled bays.</b>

In my area there are not enough disabled bays in many locations for the amount of genuinely disabled people that have a Blue Badge.

My and many other local authorities will not issue a Blue Badge unless the recipient is receiving the enhanced rate of PIP mobility allowance. See what conditions your LA has, https://www.gov.uk/blue-badge-scheme-information-council

As said umpteen times previously upthread, if you consider you need a wider space for whatever reason, do not use a disabled bay, use a Parent and Child bay, they are provided as a courtesy so anyone can park there.

I'm sorry but all of those are against blue badge rules! Registering a death doesn't allow you to use an out of date badge. I have one myself so I know the rules. They allowed your appeals as a courtesy but that was wrong and you know it. I've been given tickets for having my back wheel slightly over a dropped curb whilst in a disabled space but I was still in the wrong and had to pay up.

@MandyMotherOfBrian They can and DO issue blue badges on a temporary basis. Minimum is 60 days

This is interesting I didn't know that ,is only certain LA,s or are allLA,s required to.issue on a temporary basis?

Only some areas do this not all. Mine definitely does not.

100% agree - and I have a blue badge.

Other countries do temporary tags which can be used for people who find it temporarily difficult to get about (crutches, recovering from surgery, pregnant with pelvic girdle pain). There are a lot of conditions where a 3-6 month pass would be helpful.

I suspect the issue is cost related. Though if hospitals were able to give a temporary badge that could help (but then, more administrative work for NHS workers).

It is something worth exploring, and the government consulting on in my opinion though!

Just a guess, but I bet you don't have a friend or family member who actually has a blue badge?

Northern Ireland - no temp bb www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/blue-badge-eligibility-criteria

Scotland - your disability must be expected to last at least 12 months www.mygov.scot/apply-blue-badge/eligibility

Wirral have no info available re temp bbS. www.wirral.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/parking/blue-badges-and-disabled-parking

North York's have no info re temp
Badges www.northyorks.gov.uk/roads-parking-and-travel/parking-permits/blue-badge-parking-permits-disabled-people

Lbhf specifically say you don't get it for temp conditions www.lbhf.gov.uk/health-and-care/getting-around/blue-badges

That's just a sample

I could go on but I won't.

Unfortunately you can’t park in a disabled bay without a blue badge and I totally understand how difficult it’ll be for you getting around right now and how much it would help you to be able to park in disabled bays. I was diagnosed with end stage osteoarthritis in both hips a couple of years ago, and needed to have both replaced. I couldn’t walk at all without crutches and was in extreme pain even walking with them. I applied for a blue badge and it took 3 months to come through. In that time DH just had to drop me off and pick me up from convenient places near where I needed to be. It really sucks and I think they should issue something for temporary conditions/situations like a few weeks following surgery etc.

I was in this situation. Unfortunately you have no right to use a marked disabled bay for a temporary injury (and no right to take two regular spaces either), and you risk a parking ticket if you do. A handwritten note won't deter most parking wardens; their companies make money from issuing charges after all. I just had to hope I could park at the end of the line of spaces, which I usually could do in retail park car parks.

If you're rich enough to shrug off the parking charges, I don't think you'd be doing anything morally wrong, but then a taxi would be cheaper anyway.

Disabled people can’t have anything for themselves. There are always people like the OP who think they’re special.

How many notes on windscreens should be acceptable?

Here’s a link to advice given to LAs by the government. Would seem it is very much up to the LAs themselves what they do.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/881372/advice-note.pdf

And doesn’t even have to be a temporary badge, but other concessions. Not sure how that works in practice though.

I'm disabled and wouldn't have a problem with this at all. I think it's very thoughtful.

Unfortunately you probably would get a fine for not displaying a blue badge though.

Thoughtful to take bay that they're not entitled to use and someone with greater needs will need?

How's it thoughtful to use a bay you're not entitled to?

X post!

In private car parks it doesn’t matter. Most have terms and conditions whereby pregnant, unwell, and the non-blue badge disabled can use any space (including disabled and parent and child). If you’re nervous you can read the car park’s t&c to double check?

Yes and rightly so!

You might not feel that way if you were to find yourself unable to go shopping or whatever, because someone was in a full bay with a note stuck on their windshield, and no badge is sight.