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.

I do appreciate there are options but I’m deeply uncomfortable with the idea of policing use of bb spaces by bb holders. Happily campaign for more bb spaces which I feel would solve the majority of problems. My Aunt had a bb and a bb space outside her home, painted by the council. Another bb holder moved in across the way and council refused to create another bb space as one within so many metres. It caused so many problems, utterly bonkers.

Hows it common sense that you dont have to have your badge visible. You have to have your badge clearly displayed if you're using a disabled bay.

And no the photo side isn't visible.

I have a blue badge.Parked in disabled bay ( my sisters car .. she takes me to the supermarket)
.. she's at the checkout.. l feel very ill / sick/ anxious/ panicked/ aching/ hurting/ .so she gives me the keys and says.. I'll pack your shopping.. you go sit in the car and wait.
I think you are being ridiculous..
You do NOT know the reasons why.
Get over yourself.

@phishy you're implying your "juggle" is somehow more than anyone else's. I have a disability, four children, a MIL with Parkinson's who I am also a carer for and I would NEVER consider using her blue badge to take up a disabled space if she was to remain in the car whilst I did her errands. She is doubly incontinent and I STILL wouldn't risk another disabled person being unable to do what they needed by taking up a space for my own convenience. It's utterly thoughtlessness and prioritising yourself over others.

What's the alternative, find a spot further from the co-op and leave a 7yo alone? Force him to come?

No one needs your kind of enlightening, and I am not arguing anything. I am merely a proponent of minding your own business and not accosting disabled people when you can't possibly know the details of their circumstances. Since you're so concerned about unscrupulous BB holders breaking the rules, why don't you don your cape and round them up for the greater good?

It isn’t a disabled bashing thread, it’s a thread discussing the abuse of blue badges by the relatives and carers of disabled people, a practice which is potentially subject to a fine and the removal of the badge from the disabled person.

i didn’t move the car even though he didn’t want to come

Well you should have. You took a space someone else possibly needed.

The rules are clear. If the badge holder isn't getting out the car you park as normal in a non disabled bay

Yep.

Because let's be honest here, the Co-Op carpark is hardly going to be soooooooo very vast that you can't cross it on foot in a minute or two is it? We're not talking 'this disabled space I don't actually need right by the door, or that normal space 5 miles away' are we.

Either he is safe to be left in the car in the carpark however far away the space is or he isn't, in which case yes you make him come with you.

It's not prioritising myself though. If I were prioritising myself I'd go alone if I could, park in a normal space and take my time. Or not go at all.

I have already said I would move to a normal space if one is nearby.

Yes, any of those options. Same as any other parent would have to do

I have a different take on it. I see it as highlighting the fact that people cannot, and should not make baseless assumptions, on a moments "observation".

The rule is this:

1. You should not use the badge to allow non-disabled people to take advantage of the benefits while you sit in the car.

Therefore if the non disabled person is doing something that isn’t for their benefit, like getting shopping for the badge holder that’s perfectly acceptable.

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?

Well said @Elleherd

I think people just want us to conform to their idea of disability better.

My local co-op doesn't have a car park, but does have a disabled bay outside on the road. That's what I was envisaging.

In a car park it should be easier to move to a normal bay if her child doesn't want to leave the car.

Remember this is about not being able to move to a normal bay because there isn't one readily available.

It is a disabled bashing thread. Don’t dress it up as something else.

You left him in the car alone anyway whilst you went into the shop. Yes, you either say you’ll have to come in or accept that I’ll need to park further away.

Honestly I can’t believe the hoops people are jumping through on this thread to argue it’s ok to abuse the blue badge rules. They are not easy to get and if used for an able bodied person you just nip into somewhere for added convenience this may well impact a disabled person. The fact that it’s hard to enforce doesn’t make it ok.

My parents were both blue badge holders. Both of limited mobility. Sometimes one would stay in the car while the other went into the shops or other facilities.

It was still legitimate use of the badge of the person who had left the vehicle, but some people might see the person still sitting in the car and assume that the badge/badges use was inappropriate. It wasn't.

My mobility impaired Dad might have used his own badge for the parking but my equally mobility impaired mother (who had her own badge too) might have decided to remain in the car. Or vice versa. Still fine.

I am disabled. I have a blue badge.

I see both points of view but what I personally see a lot of the time is a middle aged daughter or son put a blue badge on the dashboard but then leave their elderly parent in the car with no intention of parent ever leaving the car.

I don't say anything because of course the parent "might" need the toilet, hence would need to park close to the shop door. But 99% of the time this doesn't happen ; the elderly person's son or daughter saunters out the shop half an hour later and then off they go. It is abusing the space but it's difficult to police.

The massive problem is that this common abuse of the spaces mean that genuinely disabled drivers like myself literally cannot use the shop because we cannot get out the car in a normal space that doesn't have the side hatches.

I wonder what a survey among blue badge holders ONLY would reveal about this issue; we see it daily and it just makes life harder and harder. Along with the able bodied people who park in the only blue badge outside Tesco express because it's the closest space. Then run into Tesco, no blue badge on display. This means I have to sit in very busy traffic with everyone beeping at me until that person comes out. If I ever dare to say anything I am literally sworn at.

It is a really big problem that genuinely disabled people shouldn't have to put up with.

Yep- if I know I’m going to fall asleep I will go back to the car sometimes.

How would you know if the badge holder was the driver or the passenger?

Honestly why don't you actually read the post and see I am not that poster? If you have comments post them to her, not me.

Yet another one of these threads?????

Some are sooo jealous of people who have blue badges.
Jealousy makes them nasty in some cases.

They would like blue badges themselves but not the disabilities.

How do you know it’s the elderly person’s badge?

I am 36 and have had a bb for years. My dad is elderly and doesn’t- if we go to the shop you would make the same mistake about us.

You know I'm really sick of even giving brain space to how my actions "look".

It's not my job to perform disability in a way that casual onlookers find acceptable.

I'm not luggage. I'm the boss in my house and my car, and I do what I need to do get through my days and my tasks despite impaired mobility.

If jaundiced eyes think maybe my teenager or my spouse is secretly the disabled one and I shouldn't leave them on my vehicle because of "how it might look", they can sod right off. Why should I care how leaving passengers in my parked car "looks"? It only "looks" that way if you have the retrograde idea that any able bodied person near me must be my carer.