Hi there,
I just wondered how many of you have a disabled parking bay marked outside of your residence by your local authority for your children?
The reason I ask, is that my local authority will only provide one if the person who qualifies is the driver of the car, therefore ruling all parents, carers, etc not eligible, regardless of what additional needs your children may have.
I'm thinking about talking to my local Councilors/MP's about why this (IMHO) crazy rule exists and if there is any appeal process or dispenation for extenuating circumstances and thought it would be useful to find out if my local authority is in the minority with this rule or if it is commonplace nationwide.
My own personal circumstances are that I have 3 boys, 2 of whom are in receipt of higher rate care and mobility and are blue badge holders and my youngest is just starting the assessment process as we highly suspect he is also going to be somewhere on the spectrum.
We live on a fairly busy road and parking has increasingly become an issue with multiple car families and several of the adjacent propertys becoming multiple occupancy and therefore multiple cars. A nearby free public car park has disappeared after having a Lidl built on it and with little roadside parking around the local shopping amenities, our road is increasingly used by business users, shoppers and people using the local railway station. This all means that parking can be a real issue.
With the additional needs that my children have, getting them to and from the car is not only very difficult, but increasingly dangerous. Having access to a nearby disabled parking bay would be so much safer for all concerned (although I am aware that anyone with a blue badge could park in it, although I do believe common courtesys should avoid many issues).
So I think common sense would dictate that we have a real need that could easily be addressed and I am going to put that forward, however I am under no illusion that common sense has anything to do with political decisions within my local authority, lol.
If anyone of you have, or indeed even know of friends who are parents of children with special needs who have a residential disabled parking bay provided by their local authority, could you please pop a post on here and if you wouldn't mind could you include what local authority you are in/under (I understand if you would rather not say that though).
Many thanks for you help.
Grace