i have a blue badge because i have a permenant disabillity but as i've said before i use it when i need to not because i have it.
when i hear people saying things like well they park in a disabled bay and then walk round the supermarket etc etc i always laugh....i walk with a walking stick but actually find leaning a certain way on a shopping trolley handle is actually better then when im walking with a stick, that said it still affects me to walk round a supermarket but does that mean i should stay at home do nothing and grow to be 40 stone and fused to the sofa just so people dont have to get bitter and twisted because i have a blue badge or should i make use of a blue badge and keep the independence i have
answers on a postcard to po box 867.................
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OK, at the risk of being non-pc ...
I get annoyed about BB holders parking on double yellow lines. It's the lack of logic that gets me irritated. If it's dangerous to park there, it's dangerous to park there. Putting a blue badge in the windscreen doesn't make it safe. On the other hand if it's safe for a disabled person to park there, it's safe for anyone to park there, so why paint the yellow lines in the first place?
By all means paint in more disabled bays if they're needed, but this parking on yellow lines just doesn't make any sense to me.
Rant over.
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The whole badge system is a complete and utter mess. Those with them tell you that is was so hard to get one that they nearly gave up trying yet everyday in your town or city you can see dozens of the things.
Why not have the badge and be allowed to park closer to where you want to be but still pay to park ? After all, it's rare to see a blue badge in a cheap chav mobile but not so rare to see it sitting on the dash of a £15,000 upwards luxury motor.
The assumption all ways seems to be that people who are disabled don't have any money and as soon as you point out the car you get ' MOBILITY pays for it " Well you can be just as mobile in say . 1.3 Ford Focus LX as you can be in the Ghia version.
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I pay for my own car and always have done - it's the other half who is entitled to the Blue Badge because of a number of serious health issues.
Even then it was not an easy route to obtaining the pass - our local council is rightly very thorough in its approach to determining whether an applicant should receive one or not.
The badge is only used, of course, if my wife is with me and we need to park for a specific purpose.
One of the problems too is the general assumption by many, as expressed by Mr X above, that all Blue Badge holders also drive a vehicle obtained through Motability. This is not the case.
What's more, anyone who is 65 or over cannot start to claim the Mobility Allowance and therefore cannot obtain a Motability vehicle; those who first claimed the Mobility Allowance before the age of 65 continue to receive the allowance and entitlement to a Motability vehicle after that age.
Motability, by the way, is a charity and is, in fact, the largest purchaser of new fleet vehicles in the UK, probably due to the fact that approximately 10 per cent of the population suffers from a disability of some sort.
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So in your case, the badge is on a car you run and pay for but is for use only when your wife is in the vehicle. There are many such similar cases . I've come across people in the exact same position as yourself who moan like hell about having to pay to park when they have a blue badge. The point is that the badge is meant to facilitate putting the disabled person in a more advantageous position as regards not having to walk longer than necessary distances. It's not a means of saving a few quid on parking. Thats the issue that really grinds my gears.
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>>It's not a means of saving a few quid on parking>>
That is a perfectly valid point and I've certainly come across quite a few who've actually moaned about having to pay, despite having a more convenient parking place and the fact that actually having to pay is quite rare.
By the way, anyone who receives a Blue Badge also gets a booklet which clearly lays out the rules with regard to its correct use, including where or where not you can park.
Unfortunately there are still some toe rags around who are prepared to steal the badges - it's reckoned that a badge is worth up to £1,000 if sold on, a price some are prepared to pay because of the high cost of parking in many of our big cities.
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I've never worried about having to pay for parking either for my mother or mother in law when parking with a blue badge.
I always thought it was a pragmatic decision of the council or whatever to try to put the blue badged cars in a car park instead of on a yellow line somewhere just because it's free.
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The assumption all ways seems to be that people who are disabled don't have any money and as soon as you point out the car you get ' MOBILITY pays for it " Well you can be just as mobile in say . 1.3 Ford Focus LX as you can be in the Ghia version.
this statement just shows complete ignorance with regards to how the scheme works.....you cant choose any car with the scheme the manufacturers nominate which models are available and in fact mobility cars are not a cause of loss to the manufacturers the scheme actually supports the car industry as it enables those of us that because we recieve benefits wouldnt get finance to buy a new car obtain a vehicle the full cost of the vehicle is met by motability they then LEASE not give the car to a person in return for that person motability payment (how you can complain about a person using that money for what its intended and not for anything else is beyond me) the person recieving the car either pays an advance fee which could be upto £15k on the car depending on its normal market price or chooses a lower range vehicle without an avandce payment.
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Believe it or not Welshlad a lot of its jealousy of some sort. We live in peculiar times. Sadly the number of disabled young drivers will increase as our wounded squaddies come through the system.
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Well you can be just as mobile in say . 1.3 FordFocus LX as you can be in the Ghia version.
I would imagine that a some disabled people would, quite rightly, be offended by that comment. Almost like the wonderfully titled R4 programme 'Dies he take sugar ?" comment.
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a salesman at a local dealer told me that that the most work they do on mobility cars is repairing intentional vandilism carried out by jealous nieghbours (how true that is i dont know)
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I've been involved with neighbourhood disputes where Motability cars have been allegedly vandalized.
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Mr X - ''Thats the issue that really grinds my gears. ''
Well, one of 'em!
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So the flash new high end motors ( not bog standard Kias or Skodas ) I see with blue badges are not mobility then. Thus it stands to reason that the owner of the vehicle has got a few bob to be driving and maintaining it. Give them a blue badge by all means if it is needed to assist their daily routine but don't give it them to enable FREE parking. Means test it.
There are a lot of BB holders in good jobs earning a decent wage who can afford to pay to park like the rest of us.
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>>There are a lot of BB holders in good jobs earning a decent wage who can afford to pay to park like the rest of us.>>
That's an assumption. The majority of the disabled people I know who have a Blue Badge are elderly and daily face mobility problems that most younger people fortunately don't suffer.
Believe you me, virtually all disabled people would gladly give up their Blue Badge, pay for parking and anything else that requires it, if they were able to get out and about freely again of their own accord.
All of us think we are invincible when younger, but aging brings reality...:-)
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Re: free parking
I believe a lot of it is down to local councils and carpark owners encouraging BB holders to use the carparks rather than parking on double yellow lines.
As for moaning that BB holders get free parking, I suspect a lot of the moaning is nothing but jealousy. I'm sure the BB holder would glady swap his disability and pay for parking just like everyone else.
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Well said DD.
In fact, there have been times I have had to spend some considerable time trying to find out if the parking in a certain car park is free or if you have to pay, many of the PAD machines do not have this information on them and you have to contact the council running them to find out their policy.
As DD said most BB holders would gladly swap!!!
As for the money side of things, well as with all walks of life there are many different variables. Myself I have to pay for my car, I had to give up a very well paid job with nice Audi A6 as a company car and world wide travel. I now earn less then 25% of my previous salary and have to work for myself from a very small office (cheap log cabin type thing) at the bottom of my garden. I also can only afford to run a 7 year old car (which I actually happen to really like, though the A6 was better).
My father who has severe MS had a motability car a couple of years ago, it was a Grande Picasso, very nice, but as his condition deteriorated he had to give it back, there were no alternatives for him from the scheme, not unless he wanted to hand over £20k and see nothing back from it in 3-5 years time. We ended up sourcing a 2nd hand Voyager that had been converted with electric ramps and locks for his wheelchair so he could drive it and have some freedom, this cost over £16k for a 6 year old car, the new price is in excess of £50k for this type of vehicle (floor needs to be lowered etc). My parents have used most of their savings for this.
So even if you have severe disabilities the scheme is not always cost effective. And as for his BB, well he uses less I do, as his is a side ramp, most disabled parking spaces are not big enough for his car and the ramp, they therefore end up parking as far away as possible, often across parking spaces to ensure he can get in and out without being blocked, he then has to pay etc. As he is in a powered wheelchair it is not a major issue being further away. But it does show that there is not one answer and that all cases really need to be teken on their own not as a whole.
Edited by R75 on 09/07/2009 at 11:14
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I've never had a problem with genuine cases having a BB and using it; I don't really care if they get a Perodua or a Porsche through Motability!
What DOES bug me is when some BB users park badly, without any consideration for other road users, and then use the need for the BB as an excuse to justify that.
It would not be the first time I have summoned a traffic warden or policeman to deal with one who was parked in a pedestrian precinct which I was (quite legitimately) trying to deliver to. Car was parked right in the middle of the precinct; I pointed out to the bobby that if I couldn't get through neither could an ambulance; he agreed and gave the driver a stern talking-to.
Should point out that driver was not a wheelchair user, and even if he was didn't need to park where he did. Didn't stop him coming back to me after he'd moved it and giving me five minutes whinge about "disabled rights". He got (polite) short shrift!
Edited by Harleyman on 09/07/2009 at 12:30
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So the flash new high end motors ( not bog standard Kias or Skodas ) I see with blue badges are not mobility then.
yet another uneducated assumption even alfa romeo's are available on the motability scheme as well as audi's, mercedes and if your fancy takes it you can get yourself a nice little lexus
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As an aside, is there any regulation that dictates what % of car parking spaces in a car park should be for disabled drivers?
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There must be because I reckon a third of the spaces on at least 3 supermarkets near me have been turned over to disabled with the special symbol on them.
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Well, Mr X, I suggest you move from Eastbourne.
X wrote>>but don't give it them to enable FREE parking. Means test it.
That's not quite fair either, is it. If you can walk half a mile/a mile into town there is often free parking. If you have to park in the centre, it costs a fortune.
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The many cars available for lease/rent on the Motability scheme can be found by going to:
tinyurl.com/mbl443
(in .pdf form including manufacturers and models)
or using the Searchable Base links:
www.motabilitycarscheme.co.uk/main.cfm?Type=CSPG
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So if flash motors are not available via Mobility, then the owners must be providing them their selves. In which case, they may well need the blue badge to park nearer some where but they don't need that some where to be FREE> Simples.
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Motability is effectively a lease scheme. The lessee gives up the mobility component of their DLA (probably about £45 a week) and the cash goes into the lease. When I was last involved with this, c1999, the DLA alone would provide a small basic hatchback such as a Fiesta. Anything bigger and you had to find anything from a few hundred to several thousand up front. So they could have a big/flash car on Motability and be paying themselves.
Free parking seems to me to be a reasonable concession in a humane society. By no means universal though, I use a car park off the Esplanade in Scarborough where BB holders have to pay.
As for parking on double yellows I don't think a BB will save you from a danger or obstruction based ticket. Many dyl schemes are there to prevent indiscriminate parking by dozens of cars 24/7/365. A BB holder parked there while they wheel themselves into the shops is no real problem except to the jealous.
Edited by Bromptonaut on 09/07/2009 at 21:45
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mods can we have this thread locked as it is no longer about the original point and has just become a certain posters opportunity to use their bitterness and jealousy towards people making use of a legitimate way of owning a vehicle
Edited by welshlad on 09/07/2009 at 23:10
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If Our wheelchair accessible Caravelle had been hired through Motability we would have needed a deposit of £12K and handed over the allowance for 5 years.
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So if flash motors are not available via Mobility then the owners must be providing them their selves.
As you are so keen on reading the Mail, can I suggest that you leave that for a while and look up the Motability site, that explains what cars are available and what they cost... We have a top of the range Skoda(!) but we had to put in extra money of our own to get that car, and that is what many people do. Its not Benefit money they are using, its their own.
You will probably say that if they can afford to do that then they shouldn't get the benefit, but that completely misses the point that the benefit is given to help them become mobile and let them get jobs (or even get out of the house), which they wouldn't otherwise be able to do.
Like the gentleman earier my wife was perfectly healthy until 5 years ago, she was diagnosed with a rare condition that now puts her in a wheelchair for most of the time we are out and about, and she is only in her 40s... it came out of the blue, and was not caused by anything she had done before... It could happen to you, MrX... Think about that before you criticise, eh...
Back to the OP, yes I do think that there should be a review of the scheme, and it should be tougher on who gets one... and that comes from someone who has to use one.
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A top quality post, b308. A fair and balanced summary.
It could happen to you, MrX... Think about that before you criticise, eh...
A very sobering thought, I must say.
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>>..and look up the Motability site>>
I provided a link to the cars available earlier to show which cars require a deposit on top of the Mobility Allowances (of both types).
By the way I'm a Mail reader...:-)
As has rightly been pointed out disability can strike anyone unexpectedly. as my until then very active wife found out some 16 years ago.
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By the way I'm a Mail reader...:-)
I read it as well, amongst other papers (an advantage of working on trains!)... the point I was making is that it seems to be the sum total of his reading based on the links from his posts... but I may be wrong! ;)
Edited by b308 on 13/07/2009 at 12:05
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Sorry, it just seems that way sometimes! ;)
Edited by b308 on 13/07/2009 at 14:40
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This thread crops up every few months, and always seems to bring out the worst in some people who do not stop and consider. It could be any of us after all, disabilities like MS are triggered by a simple virus which they believe attacks the nervous system in some, car/bike accidents, strokes happen at all ages and cancer does not discriminate. Someone else mentioned the enormous number of young men and women who are being disabled in the Forces - we only hear of the deaths.
I am glad someone knows of really well paid disabled, but they are very much in the minority. For most, disabling illness or accident means the end of employment as they knew it - as it does for their carer/s. Few businesses can afford to carry on employing someone who is no longer physically capable of doing their previous job, finds is difficult to concentrate or communicate. Sadly, one has no choice in the disability one gets. The Carer will sometimes give up a very well paid job for a £50 week allowance. This, of course, saves the tax payer a minimum of £500 a week and sometimes far more than that, depending on the level of care needed.
I think you will find it costs far less allowing the 'most' disabled free parking, rather than the cost of replacing virtually every pay and display machine in the country, which would have to be paid for by somebody. There are some places which do charge regardless of status of the driver, I can think of Torquay as an example, but they have purchased and installed machines at a height a wheelchair user can reach. Of course, they do annoy the more able bodied as they are not a convenient height for them.
Rant over - before I blow a gasket again.
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Thanks deepwith for returning the thread to where it should. Sound common sense.
PS
Welshlad said "lock the thread" earlier I think that now is the time to do that !
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