A (disabled) parking one!

[Brigger]

I parked outside a terraced house on a side street where the sign below is in the window. I did not see this at the time. No disabled bay marked.

Parking is very tricky in the area, I am currently caring for my sick mum who has just come out of hospital and she lives on a busy main road that also has limited parking. I try to park on the main road whenever possible, generally on the block before where there is often space, but not today.

AIBU to report to the Council the fact that someone (assume disabled parking notice house) is using a sign without permission and saw fit to scrawl an abusive message about parking on my drivers side window with a tippex-like substance this morning?!

YABU - Don't report. Why did you park there? Park three streets away and walk you lazy mare.
YANBU - No restrictions marked on the road? Game on. Report them for inappropriate signage and vandalism!

It’s £220 in my local area. Some people can’t afford that. It might not be a case of don’t ‘want’ to. When you’re disabled and on a limited income that’s a lot of money!

Tbe only reasonable response is o reply

"sorry, i wont do it again"

In tippex, on their front room window.

I would report that to the police. If you have a disabled badge (or not) and feel that entitled to pretending you own part of a public road, and to then write on someone's car, you probably need a talking to

I very rarely bother looking at the houses I may park in front of and certainly not to examine for parking restrictions signs.
So YANBU because it's not reasonable to expect people to consult windows just in case there's a parking restriction (although I note a PP said their council issued such a sign !) And very very unreasonable to then tippex on message abusing someone when they did innocently park there. For starters it was a one off not a repeat offence. I'd definitely report OP

I went through the process of applying for a designated disabled bay. I'd be surprised if most councils don't have a similar process. It was long winded and draconian but it is possible ti at least apply.

Also, even if it was a disabled parking space (which it doesn't sound like it was), surely anyone with a blue badge could park there anyway? It's only 'yours' if it's your driveway. A road owned by the council is council property and a 'bit of it' can't be 'given' to a resident 🤣
And any sticker in a window is absolutely ridiculous and counts for nothing. The council may have told them this to get them off their case, but there's no way you can stop someone parking on a public road because you have a sticker in your living room window 😅

Even if the council paint a disabled bay on the road outside your house anyone else with a blue badge can park there.
I have a disability & we opted not to have a bay, as we do have a driveway, & it would mean our visitors couldn't park there. But potentially anyone with a blue badge can park in a disabled bay.
There's one outside a house near my gp, I've never seen another car in it, but I only use it as a last resource if I can't get parked anywhere near the doctor.
The sign where you parked doesn't look binding, & if they have damaged your car I'd complain.
However, if the parking around there is so difficult bear in mind the disabled person may have found it very hard to have to park far away from their home.

The council don’t just provide them they charge hundreds of pounds to do them, not everyone can afford

Anyone can buy those signs. I would be reporting them to the police for vandalising your car

My neighbour was told by the council to put as sign, as he was too tight to pay for a driveway & crossover - so as that was an option refused a parking bay. (Disabled wife never left the house anyway).
If anyone dared park there he would park with his car touching the bumper and come out yelling when they arrived.

It's a request but cannot be enforced - nice to be polite but report any damage to your car OP

This is genius.

I wouldn't find that amusing. I'd have parked him in.

@Morph22010 I have a bit of experience of disabled spaces, blue badges etc across more than one London borough. I've never heard of a council charging £100s to provide a designated disabled bay. Maybe the London councils have different rules

Just checked our council and it’s £320, council next door is £220 so looks like it varies place to place

You report the vandalism to the police. You'll need this if you want to make a claim on insurance.

but just because you don’t have that experience doesn’t make it untrue…….councils do charge for this in many places and it’s an application fee not a guaranteed bay - so you might pay to apply and have it refused anyway.

I did say that maybe it's different in different areas 🤷‍♀️ We applied for one and paid no application fee

There were two disabled people in households next to each other on our street who obviously applied for disabled spaces to be painted.

I don't know how far in advance they applied, but the two bays were painted a couple of weeks after one of them had moved. A long time afterwards, the council removed one of them.

The second of the people has now also moved - and the space remains. Parking is at a real premium and people just ignore it and use the space anyway. Technically they shouldn't, of course, but otherwise it would only ever be used once in a blue moon, whilst people had to park well away for no purpose.

I don't know our council's rules on getting them removed after you move out, but if they charge you £200+ to do so when you're moving out (or your disabled loved one has died), I can see why people wouldn't bother informing them.

I must be honest, I would deliberately not look into the window of the house adjacent to a free parking spot that I parked in.

Far too many people have the crazy idea that it's their space; so whilst I would understand that I was doing nothing remotely illegal, immoral or antisocial in parking there, I wouldn't go out of my way to risk meeting the eye of one of these bonkers entitled people, with their delusions of somehow owning public land, and them shouting at me to move.

Not disabled enough to go out and write on her car !!!!

and had him charged for trespassing.

So disabled people can't go out, or write?

Report to police for damaging your car, the disabled parking is a separate issue and you didn't see the sign (which is only a request).

Massive cheek putting up an a sign like that in the first place. Who do they are think they are to dictate where other people are allowed to park?!

If there is no disabled parking then they need to take that up with the council, not take it into their own hands to dictate to other drivers.

Report vandalism to the police.

I don't think its a 'massive cheek' to put a sign up in some places - my friend has had to because otherwise she might have to park three streets over, the space outside her house is the only suitable one for a long way, due to the terrain.

Parking 3 streets over might be annoying for an able bodied person but for someone using a power wheelchair it could add half an hour or more onto the trek back to the house as the pavement route might not (and in this case, isn't) the same as the road route due to a lack of dropped kerbs/obstructions.

So far the polite notice asking people not to park there has worked very well.
The council are the people who suggested the sign, as there is nothing they can do to iron out hilly northern town and a dedicated disabled bay would be free for any blue badge holder to use, or advisory only and free for anyone to use.