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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.
Kind regards, Julian -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html