Hi Julian
On Wednesday 25/11/2009 at 7:21 pm, Julian Hall wrote: Simon Williams wrote:
Anyone who parks in front of driveways, in disabled spaces, etc should
be clamped or towed.
Apologies in advance if this sounds like a rant but.. well.. OK... it is. :)
AFAIK the wording of the qualification for a Blue Badge is 'Extreme
difficulty or total inability to walk'. I have Spina Bifida and as a
permanent wheelchair user fall into the latter category. My issue with
this is the former 'extreme difficulty'. The number of people I see get
out of cars in disabled spaces and walk with no discernible impediment
away from the car irritates the hell out of me. I can only assume that
GPs operate with a very spurious definition of 'extreme difficulty'. I
can accept that a parent may have a Blue Badge for use when the car is
being used for the benefit of a disabled child, that's perfectly fair.
However when I see a pair of young girls, or a guy in his thirties, or
an overweight couple get out of the car and walk off without a care in
the world it makes my blood boil. Sometimes if I've taken my Mum out we
play 'Spot the disabled one' when a car stops in a disabled space. I
don't remember the last time either of us was able to.
I have *never* seen any of those clamped or even questioned, but *I*
with an obvious disability have *twice* been issued with a parking
ticket. Once I was parked alongside the disabled bays because they were
full - again - of people with no disability *or* Blue Badge - I had to
pay that one. On the second occasion I was parked in a disabled bay,
got out of the car in full view of the traffic warden, into my
wheelchair - returning 20 minutes later to a ticket. On that occasion I
wrote to the Chief Constable again and this time justice prevailed and
the ticket was cancelled.
My personal view is that if a person can walk the ten yards from a
disabled rank in front of a shop, they can walk the 15 yards from the
ordinary rank behind, and don't qualify for a Blue Badge. I would like
to see the qualification changed to 'Total inability to walk without
artificial aid' - this would include anything from a single walking
stick or calf height leg iron right up to a wheelchair.
My wife shudders when this topic comes up. I once saw a perfectly able bodied man get out of a disabled space. I challenged him to move the car and he showed me his disabled badge which when questioned was for his daughter. No daughter was present. So I asked him to move and he wouldn't so I went and go my car and boxed him in. It was an ASDA car park and so most people could get round me without any problems. Anna my wife ran away to do the shopping. This man came out about 5 mins later and I just sat there listening to his rants. Eventually when he realised intimidation wouldn't work he went in and came out with the manager and a security personnel. I once again explained to the manager that as illegal parking was acceptable within the store I was happy with my parking and would move the car when my wife returned. Well to cut the story shorter I delayed him by about 45 mins and got an assurance from the Bodmin manager that he would look into the problem.
I'm not proud of my actions just bloody minded enough to want to change things for the 'real' disabled.
Rich
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