Blue Badge holders and Private Parking terms

[motorbiking]

Following on from the locked thread on Private parking charges. I thought this may be useful for a disabled person in contractual dispute over the terms of service relating to time limits for parking.

The duty to make reasonable adjustments Equality Act 2010

Service Providers:

If a party provides facilities (or services) for the public or a section of the public (i.e. users of buildings and their visitors) then it will owe duties under the Act. The duty to make reasonable adjustments is a cornerstone of the Act and requires service providers to take positive steps to ensure that disabled people can access facilities and services. The duty is to make reasonable adjustments to avoid disabled people being placed at a "substantial disadvantage", compared to non-disabled people, when accessing the facilities or services.

The duty, is evolving, so it is never possible to say a business complied, it needs an ongoing process of monitoring progress and encouraging continuous improvement.

In Summary:
If the normal terms are 2 hours free, a million pounds if you are 1 minute over, then it is reasonable that a service provider must make reasonable adjustments for a disabled person. This could so unbeleivably easily be argued to be extra time.

@securespark

 

[securespark]

Sadly I was not there.

But I have argued the EA 2010 in another case.

My Mum dropped me off to visit the bank. She sat in the car outside. The grace period was 10 minutes. She was there for 13. I always thought the layby outside was council-owned, but it was not. My Mum got a £100 charge. I went back and took photos. The PAD machine mentioned nothing about BB holders. Theere was a note on two signs 8-10 feet off the ground saying you still had to pay if you were a BBH.

I argued that a disabled person may well not be able to see (or read even if they could see) the sign, especially if they were in a wheelchair. I also argued the grace period should be extended for disabled people.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

How did you get on?

 

[securespark]

With that case? Popla said we had a point.

 

[motorbiking]

Its not easy to say you made reasonable adjustments if the rules are the same.

 

[^woody^]

Sadly I was not there.

But I have argued the EA 2010 in another case.

My Mum dropped me off to visit the bank. She sat in the car outside. The grace period was 10 minutes. She was there for 13. I always thought the layby outside was council-owned, but it was not. My Mum got a £100 charge. I went back and took photos. The PAD machine mentioned nothing about BB holders. Theere was a note on two signs 8-10 feet off the ground saying you still had to pay if you were a BBH.

I argued that a disabled person may well not be able to see (or read even if they could see) the sign, especially if they were in a wheelchair. I also argued the grace period should be extended for disabled people.

You have to argue in a court of law, not with whoever picks up the phone at the parking company.

 

[securespark]

Oh, Crikey. First I get told I'm a wimp because my wife wants to pay to avoid stress, now you're saying that I fought another parking charge the wrong way?

Actually, I neither phoned the parking company nor did I go to court.

Whatever, it would seem I can't do right for doing wrong. Not that I care....

 

[securespark]

Its not easy to say you made reasonable adjustments if the rules are the same.

Sure, which is Popla upheld my complaint.

 

[motorbiking]

On the other issue, have you tried using google maps to see what the original terms were? Maybe the sign is visible? I think there is a good chance they will accept a lower offer. Particularly if you mention you are a blue badge holder.

 

[^woody^]

Oh, Crikey. First I get told I'm a wimp because my wife wants to pay to avoid stress, now you're saying that I fought another parking charge the wrong way?

Actually, I neither phoned the parking company nor did I go to court.

Whatever, it would seem I can't do right for doing wrong. Not that I care....

The OP is about the EA 2010, and using it to argue a case.

You said you argued a EA defence to a claim, and lost.

But if you are going to argue on the basis of the EA , then that needs to be done in court.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

First I get told I'm a wimp because my wife wants to pay to avoid stress

Where?

 

[securespark]

OK. So you're going to tell me I'm mistaken?

Woody. No, in the case where I argued using the EA, we won.

 

[securespark]

On the other issue, have you tried using google maps to see what the original terms were? Maybe the sign is visible? I think there is a good chance they will accept a lower offer. Particularly if you mention you are a blue badge holder.

Sadly, I wasn't there.

 

[conny]

Who's name is on the blue badge when your mum dropped you at the bank?
If the badge is in your name then you may have a case for staying a little over the 10 mins. If the badge is in your mums name, and she didn't get out of the car, then you don't have a leg to stand on, (no pun intended). The badge is to enable a disabled person to try and leave a life as normal as possible when it comes to being mobile. It is not a 'free park where you like' emblem. I get sick and tired seeing able bodied people dropped off at a supermarket and the driver puts his/her badge in the windscreen and sits there in the marked bays. This is contrary to the blue badge scheme rules and a person can lose their badge for doing this. I have no compunction on telling someone they have to clear the space when I see this happening and my wife needs to go shopping/to a hospital appointment etc

 

[Brigade77]

When Dork got smashed up to the extent that nobody thought he'd survive, Dork qualified for & got his blue badge. Dork very rarely used it in anger, but there were a few times when Dork came to appreciate that sometimes the folk who need this priviledge really do need it.

It is heartbreaking that it is open to being abused on such a wide scale.

Dork recognises that the only folk qualified to POLICE them are the folk that NEED them. Dork once actually tried to gather an interest amongst the folk that NEED them to become the folk that POLICE them, yet Dork just came up with the sort of apathy that the folk who THINK they're entitled to something seem to display.

Until there's an army of blue badge holders who genuinely NEED the priviledge, naming & shaming those who abuse the system, then the system can never work.