BS: New parking regulations (UK)

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 07:40 AM

Doug and FolkieDave - I have been that chauffeuse - that's why I get so hot under the collar when people misuse the system. I've taken my fair share of abuse from people who've thought the same as me when they've seen me get out of the car in a disabled bay, when taking my mother out. The difference is, I would never dream of taking advantage of the badge system when she wasn't with me, and even now I never park in disabled bays, unless directed to by the parking attendant.

I am well aware that not all disabled people have difficulty walking, but I'm also equally aware that not everyone who parks in a disabled bay or flashes the blue badge is entitled to do so.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 02:48 AM

Isn't it wonderful how, when a car is parked in a disabled bay, with or without a blue badge, the driver suddenly is able to walk just as well as any able-bodied person!
There must be some miraculous healing power attached to disabled parking bays.

I sometimes park in disabled bays with a blue badge although I have absolutely no problem in walking - but only when acting as chauffeur for my wheelchair-bound sister-in-law. If I arrive with the van empty, to pick her up from a shopping trip or the like, it's fairly obvious what I'm doing as it's a specially adapted vehicle complete with hydraulic wheelchair lift. There are many people in my situation who, on the face of it, drive normal everyday cars. Don't be too quick to condemn what you may not understand.


DC

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Rasener
Date: 03 Apr 08 - 03:26 PM

>>Not every person who is disabled shows their disability<<
Agree with you there Dave.
I am not classed as disabled, but becuase of circulation and arthritus issues with my legs, I cannot walk very far and have great problems getting in and out of a car for the above reasons. Normal parking spaces create great difficulties for me.
I go to the parking attendant and explain my situation and some let me park in a disabilty space and some don't.
However, I never park in a disabilty bay, without approval.
In fact I don't claim disabilty living allowance or unemployment benefits, unlike some bleeders of the system.

Basically, abide by the law and stop whinging. The world would be a better place.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 03 Apr 08 - 03:08 PM

The personalised badge goes with the disabled person, not the vehicle, whether they can drive or not - though vehicles regularly used for transporting disabled people also get badges. Disabled badges are issued to blind people!

Kitty

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 03 Apr 08 - 01:53 PM

Bonecruncher/Liz -

1. Not every person who is disabled shows their disability. Nor does every disablity involve not being able to walk.

2. When she was alive, my mother had a disabled parking badge. She was in a wheelchair and often I parked, sorted her and the wheelchair and then pushed her around. I then left her with my wife, whilst I went and fetched the car. It's Sheffield and hilly around here. Are you saying I shouldn't have been able to? You had best tell the Local Authority that gave it to her the badge knowing she couldn't drive.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Apr 08 - 12:10 PM

Bonecruncher - I've wondered that...

But then again, I've wondered how a disabled person is supposed to be able to use the London Underground system when only a small percentage of the stations have disabled access to the platforms.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 09:00 PM

Isn't it wonderful how, when a car is parked in a disabled bay, with or without a blue badge, the driver suddenly is able to walk just as well as any able-bodied person!
There must be some miraculous healing power attached to disabled parking bays.
Colyn.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 05:03 PM

The consultation on the blue badge scheme is open for another couple of weeks....

Kitty

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 02 Apr 08 - 04:16 PM

But if a traffic warden rather than a machine issued the ticket they would see the disabled badge. Also the misuse of badges by non disabled would be easier if machines did the job as there would be no proof who was driving or present.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 07:51 PM

As disabled drivers can park in places forbidden to others just how are the powers that be going to tell the difference?

The fine would not be legal in those circumstances (ie when there's a blue badge holder in the car, any car, and the badge is being displayed). The powers that be would just have to cancel it when they were informed. And they would do so, unless there was evidence the blue badge was being misused (eg when the vehicle wasn't in fact being used to transport the person with the disability.)

Where it's a case of the Congestion Charge in London the disabled exemption is attached to the vehicle nominated by the disabled person - but all it takes is a phone call to switch it to another vehicle for the day.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 06:07 PM

Ahhh - didn't know that! Whereabouts, Kitty. I would interested in comparing the parking and traffic flow in those authorities to the revenue generaton ones!

D.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 05:18 PM

We still have traffic wardens where parking enforcement hasn't been decriminalised.

Kitty

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 05:17 PM

It was an indication of changing priorities when, in 2000, parking restrictions were taken out of the hand of the police authorities, who paid the traffic wardens, and placed into the hands of local authorities, who pay the parking attendants. Traffic wardens were tasked to keep traffic flowing and as such could use discretion to move people along rather than fine them. If the former was more sensible they also had the authority to do so. Parking attendants however have no such authority. They are tasked to ticket illegally parked only. It does nothing to ease traffic flow to fine an illegally parked driver. It does help to get the vehicle out of the way.

While I agree wholeheartedly with all the comments about illegal parking I also feel parking fines and fees are being as seriously abused as parking restrictions are. It is wrong for people to park illegally or inconsiderately. Our local co-op has a huge and mostly empty car park, yet people will insist, as Liz says, on parking on the double yellows directly in front of the hole in the wall, also severly restricting entry to the disabled parking spots. I wish there was a permanent attendant to fine those ignorant drivers.

On the other hand our local shopping precinct, built on land given to 'the people of Swinton' by the local gentry many years ago has now been sold to a private landowner. Land, that was ours, has been sold by our elected representatives to the very rich Peel estates. They now charge us to park there. The shops on the precinct, who pay rent to Peel estates, and the people who live above the shops as well as visitors to the shops now cannot park anywhere nearby without paying this wholly corrupt stealth tax, to NCP, who pay Peel estates for the privilege. Oh, btw, you also have to key in your car reg into the ticket machines so you cannot transfer your ticket on exit. Meaning the space you used is paid for again by someone else.

There is a whole world of difference between the young, fit and, usually, BMW drivers, on the yellows outside the co-op and the old lady who is fined £30 for mis-keying her registration and is bullied into paying up by the parking authority because they need the revenue.

There. Rant over. Feel much better now. Think I'll go and have that Polish beer...

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 11:22 AM

Do we still have traffic wardens? I thought they were all parking attendants now - an indication of their priorities, perhaps?

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 11:17 AM

It's the 'cashpoint cripples' that get me hot under the collar... people who want to get money from the cashpoint but not actually go further than 8 steps from their vehicles, no matter what road/pavement/doorway/driveway/bus lane or footpath they block. It seems the ability to remove cash from a hole in the wall has been paid for by the loss of lower limb movement.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 11:03 AM

But increasingly areas where parking was once free are being made into pay and display or worse taken over by private pay or clamp organisations. Also speed limits on roads are being reduced for no good reason and then surprise surprise along comes a speed camara. Even the AA agree they do nothing to make roads safer! I always abide by the law but that doesn't mean I have to agree with it!! And I will continue to 'whinge' if that's what it is, although I regard it as legitimate cause for complaint.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Rasener
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 05:08 AM

Why do you say that Mr Happy.

When you pass your test, you are supposed to be a responsible driver. The highway code, which as far as i know is the law of the land, states what is allowed or not.

If you think, these laws don't apply to you (which seems to be the norm these days), then you can only expect a fine or points on your licence.

I have been done several times for speeding. I was at fault, not the speed cameras or police. I paid my fines.

I have once been accused of parking illegally, and that was in Amsterdam. The police took my car away. I had to go to court and proved that I hadn'r parked illegally, as the area wasn't signed properly. I won the case. In that case I wasn't at fault.

All I can say, is know the highway code and you will know if you are breaking the law. Just stop blaming the people who have to issue the fines.

As far as disbaled parkers are concerned, I am sure that it is quite easy under the new rules to explain the situation etc and they will rescind the fine.

As far as the bus is concerned, I am sure there is a case to be fought.

Sometimes, because of the selfish, I couldn't give a sod, type people, the innocent accidentally get caught in the net.

I agree with what Backwoodsman has to say.

Stop whinging and abide by the law, and you won't have to whinge

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Mr Happy
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 03:35 AM

Increasingly, I'm convinced that these devices are less to do with road safety, but more to do with enhancement of the revenue collecting mechanisms of the local authorities.

Highway robbery??

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 12:43 AM

I have great sympathy for the disabled, and it's looking like a real conundrum for them. But for the vast majority - the able-bodied - the equation is simple:-

Park Legally = No Fine

If every able-bodied twerp who dumps his/her car anywhere convenient to THEM, but regardless of its effect on others (presumably because they're too bone-idle or tight-arsed to park in the 'official' parks and parking spaces) observed that equation, there wouldn't be a need for CCTV cameras or traffic wardens.

Like a lot of things, those who are wailing and whining the loudest are the very ones who've brought it down on their own heads - just like the serial speeders who complain about safety cameras.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Mar 08 - 07:32 PM

Wouldn't have bloody happened if Gene Hunt hadn't left Manchester to go to the Met.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: terrier
Date: 31 Mar 08 - 07:27 PM

And it was in Manchester that the head of the dept resposible for administering parking regulations was fined himself for abusing the parking laws.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 31 Mar 08 - 05:52 PM

Tax, Tax and more bloody tax!
Recently Manchester had an experiment where traffic wardens, instead of spending their time issuing tickets for parking fines, they got the people moving without confrontation. It was judged to have improved traffic flow in the city by leaps and bounds.
Of course, such a strategy doesn't line councillors pockets or offer scope for bribery and corruption in the "old Boys Network" which issues contracts for CCTV installation and the "commission" charged for subcontracting the paperwork for collection of these charges.
And, of course, the rich businessmen just add the fines into what they overcharge us,(it's all badged as "Decriminalising" so it is only "fines" but no points on licences) and then park any bloody where they like. There is no deterrent for these people.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 31 Mar 08 - 05:35 PM

Ah well, I did say experience. My mother had a 'Motobility' car and when we were approached by a traffic warden once when the orange badge (it was that long ago) had slipped out of sight, he explained that the Motobility car was registered as having a disabled owner - not driver.

Things change. Maybe it should be the vehicle is also registered.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 31 Mar 08 - 03:53 PM

Thinking about what you are saying about disabled drivers or passengers taking time to disembark, Nutty, reminded me of the problems we faced when the twins were small. Often we had to choose whether to leave them in the car while collecting a ticket or put them in the pram and take them with us. Given that it could take anything up to five minutes to open a buggy and organise two (not always cooperative) toddlers into their seats and strap them, in the new cameras could also pose problems for parents of young children. If I was in a strange area and the parking ticket machines were at a distance from the car I would not be happy to just leave them.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 31 Mar 08 - 03:51 PM

Sorry to contradict you Liz, but the blue badge is attached to the person - not the car. The car is not disabled.

And on the one I had for my mother which was the standard EC model - no room for any registration nunmber but a piccie of the person.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 31 Mar 08 - 03:45 PM

There was a report on TV this morning of a woman who stopped to allow a bendy bus pass before driving into a legitimate parking space. She was caught on camera with two photos taken within a minute and charged with a parking offence. If she had opted to complete the manoeuvre before allowing the bus to pass would they have given the bus driver a ticket? Everything is being mechanised to the point of chaos. Traffic wardens may not have been popular but at least they could see whats happening.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: nutty
Date: 31 Mar 08 - 10:00 AM

My vehicle is not registered Liz. Yet I use a disabled badge when transporting my elderly mother.
As do hundreds of other people.
Given that the photos of the offence are taken within 3 minutes of the car being parked, that hardly gives time for anyone disabled to disembark.

Subject: RE: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 31 Mar 08 - 09:22 AM

If your vehicle participates in the 'blue badge' scheme, it's registered at the DVLA. A check with the DVLA computers will confirm that you are elligible to park in that spot.

Leastways, that's what I inferred from the report and past experience.

LTS

Subject: BS: New parking regulations (UK)
From: nutty
Date: 31 Mar 08 - 08:32 AM

I am interested to know what device has been developed that will allow CCTV cameras to read disabled badges.

As disabled drivers can park in places forbidden to others just how are the powers that be going to tell the difference?

Any one got any idea?