A warning notice to all people who use a Blue Badge, and their carers.
My niece, Lizzie, took her Gran (who incidentally is a lady in her 80’s) to see The Rat Pack at The Sage www.thesagegateshead.org in Gateshead on 29th November 2009 as a Christmas present. It was when we had the floods and gale force winds here in the UK. They nearly decided to cancel, but didn’t.
Lizzie’s Gran has a Blue Badge (disability badge) www.direct.gov.uk/disability so they headed for the disable car park bays. There was only one disabled parking bay left, but it wasn’t a full bay; check out the photo and you will see there was a huge skip dropped in such a way that it obstructed the front of the space.
This meant that Gran had to get out of the car before Lizzie attempted to park. There were no other empty spaces. Gran had to stand in torrential rain while Lizzie maneuvered into the spot. It was impossible for Lizzie to get out of the driver’s door so she had to climb out through the passenger side.
If the driver had been disabled I wonder how they would have managed?
After the show they headed home. Lizzie (who resides in North Yorkshire) had to stay at her Gran’s house overnight because the roads were flooded; the road home was actually closed.
Two days ago Lizzie received a parking ticket, and a fine, stating that she parked in a disabled bay while not displaying a blue badge. This is not true.
The photo shows clearly that the badge was displayed, however, it was displayed the wrong way round showing the photo instead of the date.
I can understand why they have to be so careful, but this is ridiculous.
And, to top it all, the parking ticket must have blown off the car in the wind and torrential rain because it wasn’t on the car when they returned to it after the show.
I spoke to customer services at Gateshead Council (who were very sympathetic) they said somebody could have removed the parking ticket! So now Lizzie has to pay £70 instead of £35 because she didn’t pay within fourteen days of receiving the ticket.
A ticket she didn’t know she had been issued with!!!
It was obvious there was a blue badge displayed in the car window. You could see it. Would it have been a problem for the Traffic Warden to return to the car and ask to inspect it at the end of the show? I think not. After all, this was an afternoon performance and it was in The Sage car park so it doesn’t take a lot to work out that whoever was in the car was in The Sage.
How many people know how to display a Blue Badge correctly? Lizzie does now!
I used to be a voluntary driver, and many a time took people for appointments using their blue badges. I just popped it in the window. Not one of those people mentioned ‘a correct way’ to display their badge. Did they know?
And what about the skip?
It was clearly parked encroaching into a disabled parking bay. Again check out the photo. Surely Gateshead Council www.gateshead.gov.uk should take some responsibility for their actions?
Photos copyright - Civil Enforcement Officer No. 414 - who had reason to believe that, and I quote the ticket 'Parked in a designated Disabled Persons parking place without clearly displaying a valid disabled badge.'
