10,000 Derby Blue Badge holders to lose free parking in city council car parks

“This council has obviously been given poor advice. Who are their legal advisors? I refer them to cases won in Norwich, Lincoln, Caerfilly, South Lakeland..to name but a few where local authorities have not only had to change discriminatory parking policies but also pay large amounts of compensation to disabled people. Charging everyone the same is not equality as disabled people tend to take significantly longer to do their shopping and under the Equality Act 2010 must make reasonable adjustments. Blue Badge holders of Derby can take action against this. Do give Disabled Motoring UK a call we'll put you in touch with equality lawyers.”

“At least they've changed the rules of qualification for Blue Badges AND now require evidence of it. That should take out an enormous number of people from the scheme.

The thing the council need to be doing is to get tough on abuse of Blue Badges, which will inevitably reduce the number of people parking in these spaces. How often do you witness a car parking in a Blue Badge bay, the passenger leaping out with the speed of ten Gazelles and the driver (presumably the disabled party on the badge) remaining in the car, having a crafty fag and reading the paper while they wait for their able bodied companion to to their shopping?

Pretty much every day in my case.

If the Council could be bothered to take on ALL of the BB abuse going on, then just maybe their scheme to discriminate against genuinely disabled people could be shelved or confined to the bin, where it belongs.

As a disabled War Veteran, I can't walk any distance without suffering tremendous pain, so when those among you fancy that disabled peeps are extracting the urine, try rethinking your position. It's not always obvious that someone "walking" away from a Blue Badged car is disabled. It's when they jog away that you can rightly cast aspertions on the validity of their badge.”

“Unfortunately seeing disabled people in new cars gives entirely the wrong impression as you have to surrender your high rate mobility allowance to have the lease car these are always new to make the scheme workable, you have to keep within certain mileage rules and look after the car so that it retains a resale value but more to the point you have to pay for your fuel and parking if necessary out of your other benefits. Disabled people use this service out of necessity not choice and all would give them up willingly in exchange for their mobility and self esteem and no i do not have one personally i have to rely on the kindness of taxi drivers friends and family helping me in and out of cars with my electric wheelchair (thank you all by the way) as my disabilities prevent me from driving most of the time.”

“Oh by the way, I completed an application for a renewal blue badge for a parent at the beginning of January, this was with the help of the Derby CAB. I am so pleased that I did not have to depend on the help of someone like our Mad Badger!”

“Sorry, accidentally clicked the submit button before completing my post.

Madbadger "Or in your usual 'get-out clause' way just posted what someone else said. In this case the CAB of where?"

This is from the Citizens Advice Bureau for England, which is clearly up to date, much more so than yourself.

I have read comments regarding your bogus claims to be some kind of guru on legal and bebefit matters, however if you still have any doubts, take a look at the website, you'll probably learn some other things you were totally unaware of!

http://tinyurl.com/a2r3fqo”

“Madbadger "Or in your usual 'get-out clause' way just posted what someone else said. In this case the CAB of where?" This is from the Citizens Advice Be”

“"Cobblers.
Where does it say that ?"

snow man, I refer you to DB's post...

"Profile image for Derby_born

by Derby_born

Tuesday, January 29 2013, 11:04PM

"Eligibility for a blue badge: http://tinyurl.com/cgjh59j

"Who can get a blue badge?

Some people can get a blue badge automatically. This is called being eligible without further assessment. You fit into this group if one or more of the following applies to you:

you are severely sight impaired
you receive the war pensioners' mobility supplement
you receive the higher rate of the mobility component of disability living allowance (DLA)"

Perhaps you ought to address your post to him?”

“That's so sad! If I were you snow man, i would just take each day as it comes, try not over-reach yourself and hopefully you'll have a few more years left in you yet. Chin up! Wherever you move to.”

“DB, thanks for that. I suppose that it means that the page you posted was ahead of its time in that only now has the local council restricted BBs to just High Rate DLA Mobility, and removed them from those in receipt of Low Rate Mobility. Having said that, as you are an 'on the ball' person you will know that each scheme is down to each local authority. Or maybe you did not use the first search result on Google which is that of gov.uk? So, yet again you have posted misinformation. Or in your usual 'get-out clause' way just posted what someone else said. In this case the CAB of where?”

“MadBadger, This page explains who is eligible to get a blue badge and how eligibility may be assessed in England. This information applies from 1 April 2012. You must be incredibly slow at picking up such information!”