My Blue Badge was clearly on display & my car was parked in a disabled space.
Apparently it was a loading area, but the road markings had worn off. The next space was for disabled.
I could of appealed, but after waiting an hour in the queue & shown the form. Then told I would have to wait another hour, when I was obviously falling all over the place, with nowhere to sit & unable to hold a pen.
I assessed the situation & decided to leave the scam system.
After paying the fine, I will tot this up to yet another extortion of being a disabled driver.
For all those thinking disabled parking is cheap, think again. The Blue Badge, makes you a target.
The government has cut council funds so much, they can’t even paint road markings.
To further the rant, the state of the roads these days & the damage they’ve done to my car.
We’ll all need 4X4’s soon & more funding to pay for it all.
Sorry I can’t suggest any action you can take but this really gets on my nerves. In the small town where I live, the high street has very limited parking, 3 disabled spaces, along the whole length, but rather a lot of “loading only” space. I dare not park there as the TCW’s in my area are awfully quick to ticket anyone not doing what they should be. One of these loading only spaces is actually right outside the shop “xxxxxx Mobility” (xxx to not use a name!) full of the stuff any disabled person might need and use, the nearest disabled space is at least 200 metres away.
The chap that runs/owns the shop leaves his van in the loading area all day, if the TWC walks past he pretends to load something. He never gets a ticket! I have never been in and will never buy from him until he asks the council to change the space from “loading only” to “disabled”, it has been suggested to him a few times but I think he thinks it is his right to park there. It might even see his turnover increase, surely it would be good for business.
What you write makes perfect common sense Charlie. The main focus seems to be on the bonuses the parking ticket brigade get. I park in the usual safe disabled space, but they were all taken. The loading area road marking had worn off & who waits 3 hours in a room, with minimal space to appeal? Chances are, they will get even more money & you could get another ticket while waiting. It’s a sick joke. MS gets on my nerves, but so do a lot of other stupid things.
What really annoys the hell out of me is that not all council areas have the same rules. The District Council within which I live allows a person with a BB to park in any space in its car parks free of charge. The next door Council does not, and that’s where the decent shops are. It’s free if you are in a disabled bay, but not otherwise. And given that I live on the South Coast (in an area often considered one of gods waiting rooms), there are a lot of BB holders and only about a tenth of the number of disabled spaces needed. So we generally have to park on double yellows if we want to shop.
Luckily, I’m also a massive fan of online shopping.
That’s one of the downsides to online shopping. Not seeing the item in person, before we purchase. That situation has stung me numerous times. My 1000w electric mountain bike battery from China, turned out to be a dud & the seller disappeared. They sold 300 at £400 each, so they made their scam fortune.
The whole system is becoming a corruption nightmare. It goes way beyond the fake BB users.
There’s a one bedroomed bungalow, opposite me. With 14 people living there & 10 cars. And people wonder why there are no disability spaces. The old book shop I used to shop at, has 100’s of immigrants living in the derelict building. Say anything & be tarred as a racist.
6 scam calls today already. I changed my number & they’re back. Someone is sharing details with scroungers.
Luckily there is a volume off. No matter who rings, I don’t hear them now & delete all the automated messages from my answering machine every few days. If anyone calls & it’s an emergency, blame the scammers. Elvis has left the building.