General Chat

Our children did all have suitable safety restraints which were used 100% of the time - booster seats or various child seats as the designs devoloped, so nothing has changed there. :-)

Edit - during the day, I won't use child/parent spaces, but might in the evening close to Christmas when the shops are packed. Well - I've done it once when the evening was the only opportunity to leave the children at home with OH

I wish that able-bodied people parking in the disabled bays were ticketed here or the wheels clamped, but it is always "we don't want to offend the customers", so one wonders why they have special bays for the disabled.
I think it is criminal for able-bodied people to use the bays.


Val.

Not knowing precisely when 'your day' was, I stand corrected and apologise for putting years on you :-D

Lol - that's OK Teresa :-D
Old enough to be a grandparent (not that it has happened) but young enough not to get OAP, even before they changed the qualifying age.
:-D :-D

I can see this from all points my nan had a blue badge and a wheelchair (she could barely walk to the bathroom without needing oxygen) so would need a larger space.

I had four children and managed with a 'normal' sized space and now I look after my grand-daughter while my daughter is at work and still manage in a 'normal' sized space if no parent and child are free, but I do like to use them if at all possible if I have my husband with me as although he is not disabled does, at over 6 feet tall, find it difficult to get out of the car without opening the door all the way. If at all possible though I do try and use an end space so that I can park right at the edge then there is plenty of room for them both to get in and out easily.

Yesterday my daughter managed to get the last child and parent space just before someone else they did not look too pleased but when they got out of the car their child was over 5 and my daughter and her friend both have children under 1 (10 months and 6 weeks).

I think a lot of this comes about because people now think they have a right to things instead of working for them and in general there is a lack of respect for others, and I am not meaning the genuinely disabled, I mean those who abuse the badge.

I have a blue badge as im disabled, I cant walk very far etc...My husband always used to use it without my permission to park in town for free...we are no longer together!

I have been abused by older people for using the disabled bays, I think it is just because i am 44 and not elderly...I even had an older woman argue with me about a disabled parking bay as she said she needed it more than I did...We were there first so we just parked there......

Jules x

Det....I'm a firm believer that they've made the standard spaces in supermarket car parks far smaller to make room for more volume of cars than years ago !!!

I may be mistaken in that...but certainly where I lived at the time my girls were toddlers... you were very rarely able to open the door more than about a third of the way ...and in general i ended up bent double over the front seats securing them from that angle rather than dent mine or someone elses perfectly well parked car ..I wouldn't have minded if the Mother and Baby spaces were further away..it wasn't the distance that was the issue it was the larger sized spaces..AND the fact that I was able to leave the trolley by the car and not leave the girls in the car to put it back in the trolley park x

The proposed reforms of the blue badge system are in hand. It's been suggested that your GP shouldn't support your application but a third party would assess each applicant.

Well if it's anything like the hoops you have to jump through via ATOS for ESA then nobody will qualify.

I have said I would happily pay much more for my badge if they reduce the massive fraud in counterfeit badges and enforce HUGE fines for misuse of those and impose fines and points on drivers and their licenses who abuse disabled bays.

Able bodied drivers who may suffer financially might just then THINK before they park.

My son has a blue badge, (a double amputee), because he is just 21 years old he gets the most abusive looks from people when he pulls up in a disabled space at a supermarket or in our high street, because his disability cannot be seen when he is sitting in his driving seat. !!
What does anger me is some of the ridiculous rules on the use of the blue badge, in our town, for example in one street he can park in, the rules change at 4pm , so he cannot park there using his badge, what is he supposed to do suddenly become able bodied from 4pm onwards!!!

Sorry,
in my earlier post,
I wasn't referring to the use of 'radar key' enabled loo's, but to those situated say in supermarkets or doctors' surgeries,and clubs, etc...

Bob

My sister had a blue badge but was still screamed at by a woman with a walking stick for parking in a disabled space, she hobbled away when my sister asked her to swap her walking stick for her terminal lung cancer , as its been said you dont always see the disability.
My OH has a blue badge and I parked quite legally with I thought the badge in full view but still got a ticket when I queried it I was told that the traffic warden had to lean over to see the badge and this came under health and safety as he may have hurt his back leaning over to check it !!!!!

Pam xx

Jules I can sympathise with that. When I had my hip done, I was (unusually, but it was uncemented) on no weight-bearing for 6 weeks. I don't have a car so used the busses. I was sat in a front seat, with the sign saying 'please give up this seat for elderly or disabled'. Fair enough. But when an older woman, able bodied I might add, no walking sticks etc, swore at ME for not giving my seat up to her, I explained I'd just had a hip replacement and couldn't stand on the bus (it was standing room only by then), she called me a liar, I was too young (47) and it was not possible that they do hip replacements on anyone under 70! I asked her what she thought my crutches were for then, but at this point the bus driver asked her nicely to shut up or get off. :-D

No probs Bob :-D :-D :-D :-D

My sister has a blue badge and an'invisible disability so I never judge people. I hate it in our Tesco when a young person (male or female) parks in the disability bays and dashes in to get their cigarettes. There do appear to be a lot of parking bays for the disabled in our large tesco but I believe it is laid down what percentage of parking should be disabled. There is always parking at our Tesco because it is a huge car park so i never begrudge either the disabled or parent and child parking. However, I really don't understand why the parent and child has to be right outside the door. If they put them further down with a bay for the trollies with child seats etc then it would free up a chance for people who can't walk very well, who don't have a blue badge, to get nearer the door.

I have to add that from 1961 when our daughter was born we did have a car and when she was a baby she travelled in a carri cot which was strapped in (yes we always fitted seat belts even then) and had to be lifted ou onto its wheels. Then when she was bigger we fitted a car seat, not a padded one like todays but it was fitted over the back seat and she was strapped in. And no parent and child parking. However, I think that not so many people had cars then and car parks had more space or you parked alongside the kerb.

I have been entitled to a blue badge for over two years, but not bothered to get one...mainly because I need to get some photos done.
I very rarely go out of the house now and if I do I have my wheelchair or scooter with me...so it doesnt matter where we park I hav'nt got to walk.

If someone has parked too close when we return my OH justs backs the car out so I can get in. Things to do list will be to get one now...just in case

I would never park in a bay without a badge though

jax

My beloved has a blue disabled badge and on several occasions we have found a non blue badge car parked in a disabled bay.....we have just parked right in front of them, they can`t leave. When we have returned to our car, the shamnefaced driver has kept his head down and not made any eye contact.

We then just drive off.

Good for you Kathlyn, and leaving the driver without a leg to stand on (pun intended) :-D

While I agree with the sentiment of fining drivers who park in disabled bays at supermarkets, I do wonder how they will enforce them. The only tickets that can be enforced are those issued by the council and police. Supermarket car parks are considered to be private land and although they can hire private companies to write tickets the company can't make someone pay.

Wrt to P&T spaces, they are a courtesy which have been provided by the supermarket, in order to attract parents to shop in their stores. Having said that I do agree with Muffy that car parking spaces have got smaller, in order to squeeze more cars onto the car park.

Wrt to disabled toilets there seem to be two types now, those where you need a radar key and those where you don't. The latter often have baby change facilities in them and can be used by some who have SN, even if that SN isn't physical.

There are 3 parking bays immediately outside our library and 3 more on the other side of the access road. Who, I wonder, decided to make the second three disabled bays? Anybody disabled parks in the bays by the door and we are sometimes left without a parking space even though the disabled bays are empty. We are sometimes tempted to use them but don't.

OH used to moan bitterly about Travelodge/Little Chef disabled parking. He used to take an elderly friend who used crutches, and often found the disabled spaces being used by customers of the Little Chef. When he complained that his friend had to walk with his crutches from the far end of the car park, they weren't interested. This friend drove a Porsche, people used to stare at him parking up then getting his crutches out!
However, as far as disabled toilets are concerned, they are not reserved for disabled people, merely designed to be suitable for use by disabled people and their carers. My SIL has a RADAR key, she isn't disabled, just diabetic, but likes to be able to have access to a clean toilet. We get the benefit too if we are with her.