To think there is not enough disabled bays for how many badge users there are

[thecherryfox]

I have been disabled my entire life, as a kid and even as a teenager getting access to a disabled space was a lot easier than it is now. I believe now with the intake of how many people can access a badge with many different conditions - the amount of disabled bays have stayed the same but the influx of badge holders have risen.

Between 2021-2022 there was a 25% increase in blue badge holders from the previous year, but there wasn’t a 25% increase in disabled parking spaces. It’s rising each year, but there is no increase in parking spaces.

I’m physically disabled and the difference between me not getting a close space often means I cannot physically go. I know people with ‘hidden’ disabilities like bowel diseases would feel the same about accessing a close space. I’m truly not blaming individuals for getting badges because if they at eligible they are entitled to one - but it’s within the government to know that an increase of blue badge holders should mean an increase of spaces for people to access.

Absolutely spot on.

You have 12 hospital appointments a month ?

It doesn't sound a lot when the poster you're replying to is taking not just herself but her child and mum to appointments several conditions between them can easily be a few times a week.

This is what I find where I live too. There are endless empty disabled bays wherever I go. Work, supermarket, multistorey car park, town centre - the empty spaces are always disabled.

Please no to any kind of 2 tier blue badge system. I've got a badge. If you saw me tonight you wouldn't think there is anything wrong with me. Not quite the case though- my body is trying somewhat successfully to make my life as miserable as possible from the inside out. As DH puts it, I'm past my sell by date. I'm also not even 40 yet.

So many people seem to think they are the self appointed blue badge police. Because a 30 something, 2 kids mum doesn't look like she should have a badge. I've had people challenge me in car parks, tell me that BB are only for the elderly or those in wheelchairs (guess what was in my car boot that day!), be verbally abusive, demand to see my badge or on one memorable occasion actually call the Police and demand that I was arrested for using a stolen badge. I especially enjoyed giving the police officer a lesson on how to 'read' a BB (they have your DOB on the front concealed in the long number).

Any kind of tiered system is only going to increase the amount of BB surveillance. Or just reinforce the idea that some disabilities are more deserving than others. There's already enough of this thanks to the Tories and their many years of screwing over disabled people and changing the narrative to 'all disabled people are scroungers in it for the money and perks'. Besides, anyone who wants my BB to park in the always free BB spaces at their local supermarket is welcome to it. You get the broken, falling apart from the inside body to go with it as well. Just drop me a PM with your address.

Well said@rubberducksarebastards . Somehow I doubt that you will get anyone rushing to take you up on your offer!

A two tier system also doesn’t take into account how things fluctuate. Not all conditions are stable. Some days DS will be fine to park up (close to venue) and walk. Others he will need his wheelchair the whole time. Sometimes we will be carrying feeding pumps and things others we won’t need it during the trip.

People like to see disability as a constant but that’s not reality.

also in an ideal world there should always be disabled spaces free. That means the venue has got the right balance so that if a person with a disability needs to park they can.

I have always felt there should be criminal sanctions - or enhanced sanctions - for cases where a facility provided under the Equality Act is abused.

So park a car without a BB in a BB space - criminal record.
Or (as happened locally) vandalise the wheelchair lift for a library - not just criminal damage, but treated as a hate crime. (If I had caught them also loss of bollocks).

You can tell a lot about a society by how it treats it's vulnerable and less able. In the UK that is generally like shit with a few inconsistent exceptions.

Throw oil at a painting ? Jail for you.
Correctly park in a BB space ? Have a bunch of judgemental pricks ask if you really need that space.

It’s the same here. It’s beyond frustrating when you can’t find a space and all those disabled spaces are lying empty.

Have to disagree. We never seem to have any trouble in getting a space for DW's blue badge.

Where are you OP? I think it may be a local rather than a national problem.

We're in Berkshire.

Same with my mum who is the badge holder. I have to go with her, with the wheelchair. I can't drop her off.

@JubileeJuice Yes, your experience is similar to mine. I was invisibly disabled for many years before becoming visibly disabled (a wheelchair user). It used to be that there was some solid recognition that we, chair users, have specific core needs that are pretty much non negotiable, and that while it absolutely is necessary to advocate for a more inclusive understanding of disability (it's 100% true that not all disabilities are visible, and I think few if any chair users would claim they are!), that seems to have turned into "use every excuse to crap on wheelchair users and pretend our needs are unimportant".

The general public seems convinced that we are cheeky, lucky beggars who get perks that others ought to get too, when that reeeeally is not the case, as I know you know! It's not us driving the animosity, we just want our needs to be properly recognised again and not silenced under the blanket of "What About Invisible Disabilities Tho?!?!" Some people are desperate to be the most oppressed because they've swallowed the social justice world view and think it's more about box ticking than material reality. It's not like that when viewed from a chair, lol.

You're the one who wants to turn it into a competition. No one is saying you're not in severe pain. But for example, someone in severe pain who uses a chair or doesn't use a chair will have a different need to access a wider space to get the chair out of their vehicle. That doesn't mean the ambulant person has less pain, but the chair user literally cannot get out the chair and so can't leave their vehicle at all without an extra wide space. Surely you can see that you are turning it into "who is in more pain?" And thus making it a competition, without considering practicalities like this?

Because in many cases it's the passenger who has the blue badge not the driver.

I beg your pardon. You know absolutely nothing about me and you know absolutely nothing about my children. If you really need to know I became disabled AFTER having children.

My children are having to watch me become progressively more disabled. How many 11 year olds do you know who routinely hoists their mum? Call that lucky?

@rubberducksarebastards if you don't know how lucky you are to have kids, you are extremely naive. Many disabled women would give a limb to be in your situation.

It is genuinely insane that MNHQ deleted my comment. There's no justification for that and it just shows how ableist the mods are. I am a disabled woman talking about how that affects my life and I have my comment deleted for saying someone else is lucky to be able to have children? Which I am too disabled to do?

Im not even surprised given what I know about this site and how the moderation is consistently biassed against women with disabilities. But I am disappointed again that it never improves and they take every opportunity to silence us.

@hebemumsnet @lilymumsnet (sorry don't know any other mod accounts or how to tagmnhq) There was no justification for deleting my comment.

There is discrimination against disabled posters who comment on here and I have discussed it with others by WhatsApp and text because it's impossible to even talk about it on here. The mods are totally unsupportive and react just like in this thread!

Every thread about disability shows how we are treated as second class citizens and viewed that way by most mumsnetters, and that carries through to the mods too. If you ever try to speak up for more vulnerable disabled people you will get attacked persistently shouted down and then deleted. It is bullying and totally predictable.

I do think part of the issue in this thread in particular is some posters with disabilities inadvertently (I hope!) turning it into a game of disabilities top trumps.

If people who have been rightly according to the (often very tough to navigate!) systems in place been awarded blue badges they shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for parking in the spaces.

It's always this.

People think you shouldn't have a badge despite the fact that you qualify for a badge. Same with PIP/UC etc - they think people are 'fraudulent' but what they actually mean (yet rarely recognise) is that they don't agree with the criteria/threshold for said benefits.

No I don’t think that I’m turning it into a competition or saying that wheelchair user’s needs don’t matter but considering that we’ve had comments about people not looking as though they need a blue badge and suggestions that blue badges should be left for wheelchair users evidently some people want to play disability top trumps.

I appreciate that wheelchair users have some specific needs but that doesn’t mean that others with disabilities who currently aren’t wheel chair users, don’t require accommodations like blue badges too. We also deserve to have our needs accommodated and no some of us can’t stop dead in the middle of a car park because we’ll be run over or can’t traverse a car park for other reasons.

I’d be in favour of making some spaces in every car park specifically for people who use wheelchairs because they do need extra space and often for a ramp on top of that but again that doesn’t mean that people with invisible or who have visible disabilities but don’t need a wheelchair shouldn’t have accessible spaces and other accommodations too.

People think you shouldn't have a badge despite the fact that you qualify for a badge. Same with PIP/UC etc - they think people are 'fraudulent' but what they actually mean (yet rarely recognise) is that they don't agree with the criteria/threshold for said benefits.

People have been emboldened to say a lot of things, that before they would have hesitated to voice aloud. The last Government, along with the press were instrumental in shaping the way that the disabled are seen by the general public. They are not the only minorities in the firing line.