Parking in disabled spaces when disabled person sitting in car

[Mokel]

If the blue badge holder isn’t going to leave the car, the car shouldn’t be parked in a disabled bay.

The purpose behind disabled bays is for disabled people don’t have to walk far to entrances to shops, doctors etc. If not leaving the car, there’s no need to park up there.

If a non disabled person is going to leave the car leaving the disabled person in the car, they should be parking in a normal parking space.

@TallulahBetty I'm wondering if pp isn't from the UK? I've heard a lot of Americans use the word handicapped / handicap rather than say disabled / disability

I do understand what you're saying. However I gave the example of a pharmacy where there are no standard spaces at all.

Like many shops, it's on a high street with double-yellows now painted down both sides.

So I have to tag along, pointlessly, and get out, pointlessly, and sit outside at a bus stop, pointlessly, to abide by the BB rules, so he can queue in the pharmacy for my hard-to-access meds.

Total ballache.

Please don’t use the word handicap.
And it’s a stipulation of a blue badge that the disabled person gets out of the car, it’s for their use only.

Not true. Sometimes I take my dd out who has a blue badge she has ASD and other conditions. We can arrive somewhere, park up and she can then have a meltdown and be unable to go in so will sit in the car for a while , sometimes she can calm down then manage it other times not and I’ll have to just go in to for example grab what she needed from the shop and it’s safer to stay in that space as I can see her while I’m in the shop

The Yanks use handicap people! Get over it, or maybe tell HQ to ban Yanks from the forum. I'm surprised they're not already.

As most disabled spaces are, I suspect, in private car parks then it’ll never be a fine-able office in those areas, as private car park owners don’t have the power to issue fines. And they can make whatever rules they like about who uses blue badge spaces. If it’s a fine-able offence in public car parks or on the road, then who is going to enforce and how do you prove the badge holder didn’t exit the car but just return before the driver? Would you expect the disabled person to stand or wait outside the car until the driver returned?

I thought they actually had brought that rule in, that you could only use a disabled space if the disabled person was leaving the car.
If the disabled person is staying in the car you are supposed to use a normal parking space.

If a member of the public doesn't have the medical history of the people in the car, they have no business judging. What if you pull up into the space and decide that you don't feel well enough in that moment to leave the car? How do you know that the old lady sitting in the car still is the disabled one, it could be the 20 year old who popped into the shop.
A friend of my dc's is 19 and "looks fine" but is entitled to a blue badge, whilst my dgm is 92 and does not need one.

@AutumnCrow forgive me if if being dim but why do you need to go with someone to collect your meds? Why can't they park where all the other pharmacy customers park and get them without you? Especially you feel unwell and don't want to go.

You’ve obviously not read the info that comes with a blue badge!

My dd has a blue badge. Occasionally she will go back to the car without me because she can’t cope with walking around any longer, so she’s sat in a stationary car in a disabled space. It would be hard to prove that the person hasn’t at some point got out of the car? It’s an impossible rule to enforce.

I'm sorry but I don't care if ignorant people think it's abusing the system when a mother in a wheelchair with a blue badge leaves their family sat in the BB 'for an extended time.' I'm parked there because I'm the badge holder and disabled driver and can't get me and my chair in and out of the vehicle in any other space!
I'm a lone parent and It isn't my job to hide either disabled or non disabled members of my family while I go shopping etc!
My use of the BB bay as a disabled driver means someone else with a BB is not able to use it, whether my family is sat in the vehicle or not.
I'm using it and my badge is covering me as the driver, or are you suggesting I should get non driving passengers to move the vehicle?
Or is there some requirement I've missed that I must employ a carer so I can go shopping etc without people getting themselves in a flap that 'it could be seen' the system is being abused when it isn't?

The OP is correct. This was written in the accompanying leaflet that came with my mum's badge. (admittedly, this was about 10 years ago, so may have changes)

Yes that is the rule in public car parks but I don't know how you can tell by looking, if someone is breaking that rule.

I'm saying they need to be able to safely leave the car quickly if they decide to at any point.

I think you're technically right.

In the real world, my disabled mum gets tired easily and sometimes wants to sit in the car but still wants me to run her chores.

If we can move to a normal space, I do. But if there aren't any normal places then I'm not going to drive around looking for one.

@fungipie
I agree with the other poster. You had no right to question that man on his disabled status. He could have had a hidden disability. What you perceived as 'clearly not disabled' -there is absolutely no such thing. I'd advise you never to do that again, or you'll say it to the wrong person and get more than swearing next time. It's none of your business as long as the driver has a blue badge displayed.

The Parking Attendant has the right to inspect blue badges.

Ordinary members of the public don't.

I don’t like the term but it is widely used in America - UK blue badges are generally accepted in “handicapped” parking spaces

Is that really something people sit around and spend time thinking about…whether a disabled person exists their cat or not and where they park? 🤔

BB booklets issued recently still have this rule

@LoveWine123 of course it is. If people are using them unfairly it impacts on people who really need them.

So you'd rather potentially inconvenience another disabled person than yourself?

If there are only 2 spaces left and 1 is blue badge and 1 isn't and there's one car behind waiting to park with no blue badge. Would you park in the non-blue badge space and leave them with no place to park? Or would you park in the blue badge space and leave the disabled person in the car?

They’re actually not. The rules of the scheme strictly forbid the exact scenario the OP talks about.
its abuse of the scheme