Using disabled badge

[theshedman]

Hi, I am trying to find out if the 30 minute and 1 hour parking restrictions apply to disabled drivers where they have sign at side of road. If I park on the double yellow lines I can park for 3 hours, yet nowhere in the booklet can I find out about parking at these other signs. I have asked local council but they say they only enforce the rules not make them. Thanks for any help.

[gelda]

I have a disabled badge and also wondered about this so I asked a traffic warden who said that I could park in these places for 3 hours and I didn't need to pay the usual fee. the only thing is it might be different for different councils, I live in Surrey but all councils should have a parking office, mine is listed under Guildford Borough Council in the phone book so your borough should be listed as well. HTH

[gelda]

Just looked at your post again, if your council enforce the rules they must know them in the first place, I would get on to them again.

[theshedman]

Sorry I meant the on street parking with the signs stating 30 minutes, 1 hour 2 hours etc. Not an on street parking pay and display. I asked the county council and was told that I could park indefinately but didn't get it in writing. I just want to be sure before parking in any such place. Thanks.

[Blades_fan]

My Mums got a disabled badge and when I took her on holiday to Dorset recently we parked in Poole High Street and on the sea front at Weymouth for 3 hours,both these locations are limited to 1 hour parking and no returning within an hour for able-bodied cars and passengers.
I checked with the on-street parking attendant in Weymouth and he told me we were ok for 3 hours.

[Ethel]

This applies to paid for parking bays:

Badge holders may park for free and for as long as they need to at on-street parking meters and pay-and-display machines, unless there is a traffic sign specifying a time limit for holders of Blue Badges.

So, if you can park for as long as you need at a paid for bay, it stands to reason you can park as long as need in a free bay- unless the sign specifically says the time restriction applies to blue badge holders.

[crisgal]

this may be of some help:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/disabledpeople/mot oringandtransport/dg_4001061

x

[cassa333]

I don't know the answer to this but just wondered why disabled drivers get free parking? Also I think a time limit is a time limit regardless of ability.

[theshedman]

In reply to cassa333 some of us have difficulty in getting back to the car if we are parked on short limit parking so an extra few minutes often helps. Where I live in Devon we still have to pay in all the car parks so no exemption.

[Ethel]

cassa - some disabled people work but cannot walk very far, so they have to park very close to the workplace.

Their working hours cannot be dictated to by a parking limit.

Many car parks and on street parking spaces aren't free for disabled badge holders.

[bednobs]

it should tell you in the booklet that accompanied your badge - as far as im aware, you can park without limit with the disabled bage in the spaces such as you describe

[legend006]

Doc spock theres a growing market in fake disableed badges .


easy to copy and quick cash earner .

[jd_here]

A disabled driver can park in a limited waiting bay all day, but PLEASE remember, there are few enough of these bays for able bodied drivers so come on disabled drivers, give the rest of us a chance and use a disabled bay or yellow lines. Surely 3 hours is long enough. JD

[Panic Button]

I saw a minicab the other day parked with a blue badge showing.

Disabled? My @rse!

[sigma]

Panic, the blue badge applies to the person not the vehicle, so a disabled person using a taxi, the taxi, mini cab can display a blue badge

[Ethel]

I'm so delighted people can tell merely by a passing glance what disabilities a person does or doesn't have.

Many disabilities that prevent a person from walking very far, or carrying even one shopping bag any distance, are hidden.

I know somebody with one leg that can't get the badge - and rightly so. He is very proficient with his false leg.

I know somebody else with angina - looks very healthy, but can barely walk 50 steps. He works full time in an office in the middle of a big city. Without his badge he couldn't work.

[daffy654]

I hope all you people who claim to know whether a person is disabled just by looking at them are struck down by an illness that is "hidden" and are refused a blue badge! I can walk barely 50 yards without being breathless and in severe pain but you'd never know it to look at me.

[theshedman]

Hi and thanks for all the replies. From what some of you have said there seem to be different rules in different parts of the country but all seem to give 3 hours at least. It's just that if you are going to be a few minutes later than the sign allows for then you don't want to come back to a yellow sticker stuck on your windscreen. I do agree with jd_here
though that having a blue badge shouldn't allow us to park all day in these spaces as like he or she says they are in short supply and by definition are not for long term use.

[pink-kittens]

Just a question that I have wondered on a couple of occasions (usually when I cant get parked lol).
I understand the whys and wherefore's of disabled badges etc but what I cannot understand is why, for the most part, someone displaying a badge does not have to pay for their parking space?

Also, why are some exempt from paying road tax?

These are just questions that I am curious ot know the answer too

[daffy654]

You can claim exemption from road tax if in receipt of the higher rate of mobility allowance(as far as I know),we don't claim it as the taxed car has to be for the sole use of the disabled person,my fiance drives his car to work daily so we would be ineligible for this.I don't know about the free parking because regardless of whether we are parked in a free disabled bay I always insist on paying any fees relevant to non-disabled bays in whichever car park we are in.