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Not exactly a new idea. Westminster Council had its own badge scheme prior to the Blue badge, and guess what - they employed Occupation Therapists to assess the applications. It was about 25 years ago....
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All the local council car parks round here have a limit (normally 3 hours) on blue badge parking so 5 days/all day shouldn't happen, but if the car park allows blue badge holders all day parking they can't really complain if people use it!
Quite honestly its well overdue and I have to admit that the recent taking over by our local council of on street and car park policing has made things much better for everyone...
More power to their elbow, I say!
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This has been discussed on here before and I think it's because mostly we're decent folk that abuse of this strikes us as so unacceptable.
Like Stu I really object to seeing supermarket parking for the disabled used by people perfectly capable of parking elswhere like the rest of us. I do see that as a place for the use of clamps.
As for on the street? If the badge is dodgy or illegitimately used I see no problem in seizing the offending car and crushing it. A few examples on display would make the point.
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You should have seen the blatent abuse of disabled parking spaces at Ikea in Lakeside the other week. The scale of it was shocking.
The majority of the offenders were BMW drivers
PS - I once owned a BMW, so I'm not anti-BMW
PPS - There were plenty of normal parking spaces available.
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My wife has a blue badge (I use it when she is a passenger) and, despite around 15 years of serious illnesses listed on her application for a badge, had to undergo a searching Q and A session on the phone with a member of the local blue badge office staff.
It did have a satisfying result, however, in that the lady asking the questions conceded that she was very much more enlightened about a number of disabilities than she had been previously and would treat future applications from others with far greater sympathy.....:-)
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No offence chum, honestly, I'm not suggesting you cheat - but a test over the telephone? You jest, surely.
No wonder there's widespread abuse, incredible, what a system... I'm almost speechless.
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People used to have to attend the Westminster Council assessment. The nearest bus top to the office was well over 100 yards, and plenty would say they'd come by bus, when the threshold for the badge was that someone would "have great difficulty walking more than 100yards"
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No offence chum honestly I'm not suggesting you cheat - but a test over the telephone? You jest surely.
No wonder there's widespread abuse incredible what a system... I'm almost speechless.
You should be absolutely and utterly ashamed of yourself for even suggesting such a possibility. I am speechless.
The telephone "test" was an enquiry about the application form submitted by my wife and the various problems she has suffered health wise over the past 15 years.
Perhaps if you had had a kidney removed, were on dialysis three times a week, had had cancer treatment twice in the past 10 years and informed that the cancer had returned in a secondary form, needed a triple heart bypass and now urgently require a heart valve operation, along with one or two other issues, you might not be so quick to damn the genuine applicants.
For the record, my wife has been in hospital for nearly six of the last eight weeks waiting for the go ahead for the valve op, which can only be done by a specialist team in the Midlands.
So think again before you are so quick to criticise.
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From my reading, Ago was just aghast the fact that there might be (only) a "telephone test" for a blue badge applicant, leading to the possibility that *some* people might abuse the system, rather than having anything at all personal to do or say about you & yours. Hope this helps.
Edited by FotheringtonThomas on 07/08/2008 at 21:54
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FT,
Agreed, don't think Ago was having a go at Stu.
Seems the lad has a fair bit on his plate at the moment and I'm sure we all wish him well.
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Very sorry, but with expressions such as: "I'm not suggesting you cheat" and "You jest surely" I'm afraid I don't agree. The implication was very clear and explicit.
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Very sorry but with expressions such as: "I'm not suggesting you cheat" and "You jest surely" I'm afraid I don't agree. The implication was very clear and explicit.>>
After a good nights sleep cooling off I had intended to post an unconditional apology for any offence, but after your latest posting I?m not so sure. Why post all those personal details? Why are you so offended, who was I criticising and what was I implying?
Sorry, but a mobility assessment carried out over the phone is straight out of Monty Python in my book, filling in a few minor details maybe, but * a searching Q and A session on the phone with a member of the local blue badge office staff * ?
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>>Why are you so offended, who was I criticising and what was I implying? >>
If you are unable to grasp how much offence you have caused, then I feel sorry for you.
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Stuart, get a grip man.
Your situation sounds truly awful, my heart goes out to you and your wife for the horrendous catalogue of bad luck you have suffered. It is quite clear that your wife is entirely entitled to her blue badge.
However, Ago's comments could not be taken by any impartial reader as anything more than incredulity at a system that assesses disability claims over the phone. Such a system would clearly be open to abuse by the unscrupulous - commenting as such is a very long way from accusing you or your wife of being unscrupulous, dishonest, or in any way to be abusing the system.
I for one read the comment "I'm not suggesting you cheat" as meaning exactly that, and "You jest surely" was clearly aimed at the stupidity of the council policy, not your family.
I wish you and your family all the best.
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at a system that assesses disability claims over the phone. >>
The whole point is that it wasn't assessed over the phone - the inquiries were due to the fact that my wife listed the actual medical names for various conditions on the application form and this is why the blue badge lady was seeking information/clarification.
Hence my remark that the lady concerned knew a lot more about certain illnesses, conditions etc as a result. Presumably she has never heard of Google...:-)
Thank you for your final remark, it is much appreciated.
Edited by Stuartli on 08/08/2008 at 14:00
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PPS - There were plenty of normal parking spaces available.
Were there still plenty of disabled spaces available?
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A couple of years ago there was a purge on Blue Badges near a LARGE TELEPHONE CAR insurance co - you know - the all have *** phones.
At closing time - 8pm they left the building and a few were caught - the wise ones walked away, left their cars and came back after midnight to retrieve the cars.
At £10 / day minimum to park in Glasgow legit or forged blue badges are used by able bodied
In and around George Sq - the main square in Glasgow. I would say the average Blue badge car is an exec car, under 3 years old - I know being disabled does not mean you are unable to buy and run a £20K+ car but it is unlikely that the majority of disabled can.
It is more likely forged, borrowed or stolen
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I know being disabled does not mean you are unable to buy and run a £20K+ car but it is unlikely that the majority of disabled can.
you'd be surprised at the makes and models available under the motabillity scheme
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My grandmother has a blue badge, mainly because she cant walk more than about 5ft at best before her legs give way due to nerve damage, hence the need for a wheelchair, which is her state of fitness and being in her mid 70's, is alot of work to get herself uphill to the doors at Tesco, hence she gets to park near them. Seems fair enough.
What all that has to do with her potential income is, er, zero. She is a reasonably wealthy woman who not only rents her large house out for a sizeable sum, but lives for free at my parents house, not to mention a 20k a year pension that she struggles to spend even a 1/4 of - she is considering buying a Saab convertible, just for her to be driven once a week as she loves the cars and has always wanted one.
Blue badges are nothing to do with income, nor is disability as I know several disabled people who earn very nice wages through sheer hard work. This perception that disability means rotting away in some council flat is rather outdated.
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My aunt's husband couldn't walk, period. Polio at 15. Didn't stop him qualifying as a chartered accountant and becoming senior partner of a large regional firm. Loved his cars, especially his Mk2 Jaguars, of which he had three.
Not sure what he was worth when he died, but suffice to say, my aunt does not want for anything. Sadly he wasn't so generous as to leave me any of his Jaguars.
Don't think he ever had a badge, though. He used his conventional wheelchair at a great rate, and could go a good 50% faster than your average mimsing pedestrian.
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I used to work with a guy who had polio as a child. He could walk, but only with the aid of crutches and metal leg braces. He never wanted any form of special treatment, and I doubt he ever applied for a badge. He could drive a car and even had a pilots licence. I had alot of respect for that guy, he was very genuine and good fun - great to go out for a beer with after work :)
Seems like these days people want special treatment for the most minor thing - ooh, I sprained my ankle, give me a free car...
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>> PPS - There were plenty of normal parking spaces available. >> Were there still plenty of disabled spaces available?
Yes, there were a few. If there were only badge holders parked then there would have been lots of spaces.
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In off-street situations the problem could be eased by larger spaces for the able-bodied.
I don't think many of us able-bodied parkers object to the longer walk, but I do mildly resent being shoehorned into a narrow space.
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SWMBO is a Blue Badge holder. She finds it difficult to walk, even sometimes, short distances because she is Asthmatic & has agonising problems with her foot arches, for which she is receiving treatment.
But, I wish she didn't need a Blue Badge & was in the best of health. These cretins who abuse the system, should have their vehicles crushed, licences torn up, & fined serious money. To deny a valid user, the right to park in a disabled only bay, because they think they are entitled to "try it on" should consider how fortunate they are in having full mobility.
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>>These cretins who abuse the system, should have their vehicles crushed, licences torn up, & fined serious money.
Well at least it is a start. From my initial posting-
"....has prosecuted 817 people and seized 251 cars "
No indication if they were crushed.:-)
(The cars not the owners).
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