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We recently had a ticket issued while in a disabled bay - the reason given was that the blue badge was there but was not clearly visible as it was obscured by the (disabled) tax disc! He/she must have been having a bad day as all the relevant info was visible - ticket was immediately cancelled at Council Offices as parking attendants are told to check tax disc before issuing fine. I would point out that the tax disc should have been checked as part of your appeal.
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The car is not adapted for the disabled so in our case we only have a normal tax disc - my wife is partly sighted and epileptic and the badge was issued on that basis.
However:
I have now [ an hour ago ] handed in my appeal letter in person at the Town Hall [ and made sure I got a receipt for it! ]. I insisted in handing it to someone from the parking enforcement office, and the official told me that as far as she was aware local policy on residential disabled bays has not changed and they are still unenforcable, so I have a good chance of not having to pay the fine.
The official also suggested that in the personal bay, it should be sufficient to leave the cardboard clock on display only and take the badge indoors; they will get back to me about this.
In addition, I noticed this morning that one of the other disabled bay residents in my road also has a little yellow present on his windscreen. So this is starting to look like it is down to a new warden not being properly trained.
I will keep you advised of what happens next...
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>>>>>>>>>>.The car is not adapted for the disabled so in our case we only have a normal tax disc - my wife is partly sighted and epileptic and the badge was issued on that basis.<<<<<<<<<<<<
The car does not have to be specialy adapted to claim nil rate road tax, I succesfully claimed nil rate to transport my disabled mother in a standard car when my father died.
The proviso (in my case) was that the vehicle was to be used soley for the purpose of transporting the disabled passenger .
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I am the driver for my husband and son, so car is not adapted, and neither of them drive. Higher rate mobility qualifies for tax-exempt, and as Mal says, this car is used solely for their benefit. If on my own I use the micra we have - tax paid.
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Ah - well, in my case it's certainly not for my wife's sole benefit so I wouldn't qualify anyway.
Meanwhile...
I have had an e-mail from the official who arranged our bay in the first place confirming that it is non-enforcable and that I do not need to display the badge when parked outside my house in our bay.
If a disabled bay is enforcable it will have a sign next to it displaying the waiting times.
Looks like I'm going to get that ticket quashed doesn't it? :-)
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The proviso (in my case) was that the vehicle was to be used soley for the purpose of transporting the disabled passenger .
The proviso is that the vehicle is used for the sole benefit of the disabled person, that includes shopping & collecting perscriptions, wether the qualifying person is present or not.
To qualify for free tax disc the person needs to be receiving DLA mobility component at the highest rate.
Blue badge must not be used if qualifying (for badge) person is not present
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Extract from tinyurl.com/2dglj9 :-
Blue Badge parking bays
It is an offence to park a vehicle which is not displaying a badge in a Blue Badge parking bay. If you see this, you should report it to a traffic warden (or parking enforcement officer), the local police or the local council (who are responsible for issuing badges).
Police officers, traffic wardens, local authority parking attendants and civil enforcement officers have the right to inspect Blue Badges. It is an offence to refuse or fail to produce a badge for inspection, without reasonable excuse. This offence carries a maximum fine of £1,000.
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L\'escargot.
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Right, first of all apologies for the long delay in updating you and also for my general absence from the board lately - I have had a broswer problem which meant I could only get six minutes of web connection per boot-up. This is now fixed, but the PC itself is now running very slowly...
Anyway, back to the ticket:
This has now been cancelled, but there is more to it than that.
The situation was that the local Director of Operations at the Town Hall insisted that the bay was enforcable, although it is not in fact covered by a TRO. He stated that he would only cancel the ticket upon receipt of proof of the badge.
Knowing that he was wrong, I contacted the bay arranging people at County Hall, and the response was swift - an e-mail roasting for the Director of Operations from the County Principal Engineer which ordered him in no uncertain terms to cancel the ticket because the bay is not covered by a TRO, is not enforcable and therefore the wardens should not be issuing the tickets.
Just for good measure, the CPE copied me and three others in on the e-mail.
The DO duly cancelled the ticket, but still seemed reluctant to do so.
Anyway, at least I know where I stand [ or should I say park?! ] now... :-)
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>>The DO duly cancelled the ticket, but still seemed reluctant to do so.>>
You now know why those who work for councils or other public services are keen to maintain their job status, yet never seem to suffer for the mistakes they make during their working day.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Muggy,
I'm pleased you've got it sorted to your satisfaction.
However, I don't understand why what you've experienced seems to be at variance with what www.direct.gov.uk says ~ "It is an offence to park a vehicle which is not displaying a badge in a Blue Badge parking bay." I'm not saying I want that to apply in your case, but it's odd that the various authorities involved aren't in agreement with one another. Or have I got something round my neck?
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L\'escargot.
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Well done! Now ask politely if compensation is available for your time, distress and expenses ;-)
Please post details of your success on forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30 (or perhaps you have already done so?)
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I am glad you sorted this out BUT (if I have read the above correctly) this now means disabled bays outside houses are an unenforceable courtesy - only relying on goodwill of other drivers - if a parking fine should not be issued?
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Oh for a delete button ... have just re-read your firt posting where it tells me it is advisory only .... blush blush
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L'escargot and Deepwith:
If a disabled bay has a restrictions plate [ which would normally read "Blue Badge Holders Only" or similar ] then the bay is covered by a TRO and is enforcable. Virtually any disabled bay in a public car park or outside a social venue such as a cinema or elsewhere will have such status.
Most residential bays, on the other hand, are indeed advisory only and are not covered by a TRO and cannot be enforced so yes, they will rely on goodwill - in practice this does happen because most motorists [ even if they are aware of the unenforcable status of the bays ] will respect them and realise that they will become a social pariah if they use the bay anyway.
In our case my wife is partly sighted and epileptic, so we do have a very real need to ensure that we can park outside our house. Not only so that it is immediately available if my wife feels that she is about to have a fit and needs to get in to the hospital asap [ we cannot call an ambulance unless she actually does have a fit ] but also if she is very tired after a day out she can get straight into the house - being overtired is a key trigger for her fits, so not having to walk all the way down the road can make all the difference.
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Muggy, thanks for the reply. You might be interested to know that in Kensington and Chelsea we noted all the disabled bays outside houses had the blue badge id number painted on them, for use of that badge holder only - difficult for us out-of-town parkers - but good for the resident. They also restrict disabled parking elsewhere to 20 minutes rather than the usual 3 hours, not marked up on signs so a good revenue source, whoever dreamt that up has never tried to do anything in Kings Road area with restricted mobility!
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I had this problem before but all solved very easily.
check out www.bluebadgeprotector.co.uk/
didn't get mine through them so can't vouch for the company but the product is just fine (I have the double one for £19.99)
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Muggy, if I were you I'd print a copy of that e-mail and keep it in the glovebox, if you haven't already.
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I have printed it off, don't worry. :-)
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L'escargot and Deepwith: If a disabled bay has a restrictions plate [ which would normally read "Blue Badge Holders Only" or similar ] then the bay is covered by a TRO and is enforcable.
Muggy,
I assumed that your bay was on the road and that it was appropriately marked. The exact status of your bay wasn't apparent in your original post. In fact I still don't know what it's status is. For the sake of clarity and to avoid inappropriate replies perhaps you should let us know.
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L\'escargot.
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one other thing (which is not very helpful) unless you live in a borough like Chelsea & Wetminster where they have badge specific bays, the bay is not "yours". I have been asking my council to make the bay that I requested to be put in outside my house to be made "mine" as it is permanatly full of other blue badge users (builders included) that do not realise that they can park in any parking slot without paying.
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Yes, it's in the road, it's a series of white dashes with the word "DISABLED" painted on the road next to it.
There is no restriction plate or anything similar posted next to it and the County Principal Engineer has confirmed in writing [ the e-mail mentioned above ] that there is no TRO on it and it is therefore unenforcable. It is an advisory bay only - as are all the other residential disabled bays in the town.
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D'oh - I forgot to add:
I like that idea of the residential disabled bays being plated for the use of a specific badge holder only. Maybe I'll put the idea to them.
Bit of a double edged sword, though, as it would mean the badge would have to be left in the car all the time - which they specifically advise against because of the high incidence of blue badge theft.
Maybe the restriction plates could be done to display an authorised vehicle registration, nominated by the badge holder, in addition to or instead of the badge number.... Yes, there may be problems when one changes vehicle or has to use a hire / courtesy vehicle, but overall....
Hmmmmm.....
Need to think about this a bit....
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I like that idea of the residential disabled bays being plated for the use of a specific badge holder only. Maybe I'll put the idea to them.
I wrote to my local councilor who is number 2 in the council about 2 months ago and that is about as far as Ihave got.
Bit of a double edged sword, though, as it would mean the badge would have to be left in the car all the time - which they specifically advise against because of the high incidence of blue badge theft.
Don't worry about that. Get the Blue Badge Protector. I had my car broken into 3 times before I found this protector. Link further up the page and great for £20.
Maybe the restriction plates could be done to display an authorised vehicle registration, nominated by the badge holder, in addition to or instead of the badge number.... Yes, there may be problems when one changes vehicle or has to use a hire / courtesy vehicle, but overall....
Too complicated and therefore too expensive. A bit of paint that has the same badge number as yours much easier/simpler
As for the Disabled Bays not being enforceable that is the same in my bourough (but by no means not all) and that was my last line of defence in getting my parking ticket over-turned for parking in the "my" bay outside the house on a Sunday without the badge on display (I did have a valid reason as well).
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