Blue Badge Parking Fees

[SPAP]

After overwhelming opposition, Bromley Council has decided to reverse its plans to introduce Blue Badge parking fees in its car parks. Our objections were based on the fact that it must be an unfair proposal, if able-bodied people have the choice to walk or cycle to their destination and pay nothing, while Blue Badge holders have to park (due to their disability) and under the plan, pay.

We're aware that many other councils charge and would urge other members of the public to object. It's the principle of Blue Badge holders paying more then able-bodied people, as well as the cost. We are hoping that our success can be replicated nationally and that ultimately Blue Badge holders will not have to pay anywhere in the country.

sounds entirely reasonable .

It really doesn’t. It lacks understanding of the range of needs disability covers.

Yep my husband is a blue badge holder and I agree. We used the car park same as anyone else parking there so we pay. We could always not go if we didn't want to.

And those people with breathing difficulties, who can walk a very short distance with frequent rest, but who do not use a stick, or wheelchair? The range of disabilities which would enable a person to be issued with a BB has been through in depth consultation with disability groups, and the Government. I would suggest that they understand more on this issue than you obviously do.

Able bodied people can choose to park further away and walk, disabled people can’t.

But that's lumping all disabled people in together which is what we ask AB people not to do.

My ds uses a wheelchair. It doesn't matter how close he is because he isn't walking! He needs a wide space to get in and out.

He has no problem paying the same as someone not in a wheelchair and without a BB but he does say he would mind less if everything was equally accessible universally. (As someone mentioned upthread to use buses for example).

I don't think the issue is the charging for BB parking. It's the lack of accessibility to use alternatives for some disabled people.

I think your experiences may have been fairly limited when it comes to disability issues and I really struggle to understand your point of view. This isn’t about people who may find if challenging (as most old people do) to walk short or long distances.

My 27 year-old daughter has a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome which means that ALLher joints - jaw, shoulder, hip, knee ankle toes, fingers - literally all, dislocate easily and cause her horrendous pain. Every step hurts. She qualifies for a Blue badge because she can walk, but each step is excruciatingly painful.

My 86 year-old mother has dreadful arthritis in her knees and has limited mobility but wouldn’t qualify for a Blue Badge -she sounds like your parents - while my father has had major heart surgery which has left him with breathing problems and last Tuesday a major colon cancer operation and he does qualify.

The difference between Blue Badge holding people and ‘fit. healthy, can walk around all day people’ is actually huge and unless you’ve experienced it, as I have, you really can’t judge.

Thats the reason why there’s a stringent test for Blue Badge qualification and rightly so. Most people who are allocated a Blue Badge have to undergo quite a stringent test. Blue Badge holders are the most disabled and disadvantaged people in society.

As I’ve explained before, I have what my MS nurse calls ‘highly active MS’. I tried for at least a decade not to accept the reality of it, tried to be as positive as I could by running a 10k for charity, embarking on a drug’s trial etc.etc.

Now my illness is progressing quite dramatically. Having never broken a bone until 5 years ago, I have now broken my arm, finger and (badly) my ankle. I struggle with dizziness and I think I would now qualify for a Blue Badge but am reluctant to apply because I know how desperately people like my daughter really rely on Blue Badge spaces

My main argument is that Blue Badge holders have absolutely no choice. You mention people with children. When I would accompany my children (my Blue Badge holding daughter wasn’t disabled as a child - that came with puberty) into our local town, I could push them in a pushchair or they could walk. It really wasn’t that difficult. If your child does have a serious disability, then of course they should qualify for a Blue Badge.

Now that my daughter is 27 and is a Blue Badge holder who uses a wheelchair, there’s no way I could push her wheelchair into town, not least because I have MS myself and it’s quite hilly.

I don’t feel your comment expresses a true account of serious disability and I think you lack true understanding.

In my view, where Blue Badge holders really have to park, they really shouldn’t have to pay.

1 in 10 people in this country have a blue badge so not sure why some posters think it’s so rare and they’re special for having one.

Where are you getting that figure from ?
Google suggests there are approx 2.57million Blue Badge Holders, which is said to be 4.6% of the population.

SO many disabled people are not lucky enough to share your financial position. Of course you 'could always not go, if we did didn't want to' but for many disabled people, like some who have already commented on this topic, without free parking, they wouldn't go out at all.

From my own point of view, despite my MS diagnosis 12 years ago, I was determined to stay positive and carried on working for far longer than I should have. I worked as a lowly paid TA with special needs children in a primary school and absolutely loved it, but came to realise my illness meant that I really couldn't give the children the level of support they needed, so I took early retirement on ill health grounds. Over the years following my diagnosis, I had to keep reducing my hours. When I took early retirement, I was just working 15 hours/week.

Despite working for 40 years, my pension is tiny (I'm 59 and don't qualify for state pension yet).

I'm pleased that you and your husband are financially healthy enough to pay, whenever you go out. Many people aren't in that position.

Jesus, some of the posts on here. Unpleasant isn’t the word.

OP, that’s great news and hopefully other councils follow.

I disagree. What is the alternative to 'lumping all disabled people together?' Spending millions on establishing the level of every Blue Badge holders level of disability and charging them accordingly? Or agreeing that Blue Badge holders have severe issues and shouldn't be charged at all. I suggest the latter is the only kind, considerate and fair option.

Many disabled people struggle to travel by bus. The new buses introduced in Bromley, Greater London, for example, are causing real problems for people in wheelchairs to access.

Many Blue Badge holders really can't afford to pay parking fees whenever they go out. They have no choice - they have to park near their destinations, unlike able-bodied people who can usually walk there.

It's the unfairness I hate. Blue Badge holders have no choice. They can't walk or cycle to their destinations like able-bodied people can. They can't choose to park in the cheapest car park and walk to their destination.They can't park outside the town and walk in.

Many thanks. I agree. There seems to be a lack of generosity towards serious disability issues. Thank you for your understanding.

Spap I think your cause is admirable.

But you aren't listening. Not even to the views of other disabled people.

It's your choice not to apply with having MS. But it doesn't make you martyr to your cause.

My ds swims 5-6k every morning, gets out, gets in his adapted car in a BB space, goes to work, goes back and swims another 5-6k whilst parked in a BB space. He travels around Europe competing for the country in sport.

Ds has never had and I have never had parking for him a problem with paying for the space alongside everyone else.

We both have an issue with lack of accessibility, number of spaces etc.

Blue Badge holders are severely disabled and shouldn't have to pay at all to park.

My (school aged) child has a brain tumour which have lifelong impacts on energy balance and mobility.

I have not applied for a BB because I know she does not meet the criteria. She can't do a 30m walk into town. She tried to do the 10m walk to school once and it took an hour. But sometimes she has energy to run around the park, and then flops in the pushchair (she's tiney enough that she uses that rather than a wheelchair) because she's depleted.

My elderly mother would have (maybe) qualified due to the degree of arthritis in her hips but couldn't because she was on the waiting list for surgery. Between the two hips, for 3 years.

I understand very much.

I think it is you that doesn't necessarily grasp that many people do not qualify for a BB but have disabilities that cause issues with mobility.

Also, don't forget that some areas are stricter then others. And the reality that someone could have a BB but because they (for example) are right on an excellent bus route, car use is optional, whereas person B has mobility issues falling slightly short of a BB and lives away from public transport and is more compulsorily reliant on a car.

You seem to have this view that either someone has disabilities requiring a BB or they are fit and healthy and fully mobile and that BB = compulsory use of car and everyone else it's optional, even if physically impossible due to disability.

You clearly don’t know as much about the blue badge criteria as you claim you do. I am a blue badge holder. I have a degenerative disability, I am not severely disabled and I find a lot of your comments highly disrespectful.

Blue Badge holders are severely disabled and shouldn't have to pay at all to park

As a pp said. You are not listening.
You are taking your family's situation, and it seems the situations of some people you know, and presuming every person with a BB is in the same situation.

They aren't, by a long way.
None of the 5 people I know of (that I know well) who have Blue Badges are in poverty or are unable to pay for their parking.

There are many people on this thread telling you the same. But you aren't prepared to accept that there are all sorts of different cirumstances.

i feel this post lacks a total understanding of what life is like if a v person is severely disabled enough to qualify for a Blue Badge. Yes, Blue Badge holders can park near their destination (big deal!) but they do not have the freedom to move around freely, say within a town, without incurring additional charges. If we go to our local town and I take my daughter for a coffee and then to the park at the end of the street, I’ll have to park and, if the Council has introduced a paying scheme for BB holders, pay twice.

Blue Badge holders have NO choice. They cannot walk or drive to their destinations like able-bodied people.

i agree that some Blue Badge holders aren’t on the poverty line, but so many are!

Flipping heck! Shocked at the lack of compassion. Being able to park in a Blue Badgd spot is convenient but being so severely disabled that you qualify for a Blue Badge is really not a privilege and I can assure you that the vast proportion of Blue Badge holders would quite happily give up their Blue Badges if it meant they were able-bodied.

being so severely disabled that you qualify for a Blue Badge

WE’RE NOT ALL SEVERELY DISABLED

I'm intrigued as to high you qualified for a Blue Badge if you aren’t severely disabled???? I have MS myself - a degenerative disability- and have been diagnosed with ‘Highly active MS’, so I am considered very disabled.

I’m not aware of being disrespectful towards anyone and am baffled by your comments. Please explain.

Im not going to go into my medical information here suffice to say I qualify for a blue badge. I still work, I am disabled but your comments make out that if you have a badge you can’t function. A colleague qualifies due to being medically discharged from the army. My mother’s friend has received a terminal diagnosis and therefore qualified. All of us are different and yet have a badge.

It’s the principle as much as the cost. Blue Badge holders, by dint of the fact that to qualify for a Blue Badge they should be quite severely disabled, would have to pay and park each time they want/need to park unlike their able-bodied peers, who can walk/cycle for free or catch a bus/park and pay.

Able-bodied people have so many more choices which Blue Badge people simply don’t have. Blue Badgd holders (even if they can afford it) would end up paying more than able-bodied people.

I could give you a long list of Blue Badge holders I know who are really struggling financially. When I started a petition to oppose Bromley council’s plans, over 4000 people signed and many of the comments about the impact this policy would have on them is quite heart-breaking.

Perhaps mumsnet tends to be a more affluent demographic, where cost or fairness is less important????

I am so sorry to hear about your daughter and really wish her, and you, all the very best.

I really don’t have the view you express in your final paragraph. I have ‘highly active MS’ and don’t have a Blue Badge. I possibly would qualify for one because I struggle with dizziness and have broken many bones through falls over the last 5 years, never having broken a bone before,

I am not as disabled as my daughter or many other people and so haven’t applied for a Blue Badge. I know there are many degrees of disability and this is why the Blue Badge requirements have to be met before someone is issued with one.

I don’t understand why you wouldn’t support free parking for Blue Badge holders. You obviously have experience of disability and understand its challenges. Blue Badge holders can only drive and park. unlike able-boded people who would not have to pay anything.

Blue Badge holders can only drive and park. unlike able-boded people who would not have to pay anything. Why do you keep saying this? Does every single able-bodied person you know have the ability to walk or cycle everywhere they go? Highly doubt it.

Oh dear! Won’t argue but absolutely don’t agree.

I don’t think that BB should be free parking. not all BB holders cannot afford to pay. For council car parks maybe a pass could be offered if you are on means tested benefits.

OP I think the issue here may be that some disabled people have higher expenses and that it is not sufficiently covered by disability benefits.

i do not qualify for a BB or PIp (quite rightly) but my cerebral palsy means my walking is limited. I also have sight loss so cannot drive. I need to get a taxi to the train station each day to then go to work as the bus doesn’t go to the station. My overall travel expenses for the same journey are higher than my mother who could drive and park and pay and has a BB. Parking in the city is expensive but not as much as my train (with disabled railcard) and taxis.

However we are finding that BB spaces are now further away than parent ones at supermarkets which is annoying