We went to Southend today, complete disaster from start to finish, days out with my son and daughter both with very different but complex special needs is very difficult on a good day.
One thing that really annoyed me though is the car parks and the meter parking has changed for blue badge holders, you used to be able to park all day with a valid blue badge for free, even along the sea front at the meters, now there are signs that everywhere saying that blue badge holders with badges issued by Southend on Sea may park free of charge and all other badges issued by other authorities must pay the standard fee.
I have also been to other boroughs where the car park allows only locally issued badges to use the marked disabled bays.
We ended up paying £12 for parking in the car park rather than beach side where we normally park for ease of access as that would have cost us double. It's not the money I am begrudging but the principle, towns like Southend make most of their revenue from visitors we spent in excess of £200 there today, so I feel that discrimination against non-locals is awful.
I started an e-petition as well this evening feel free to sign it if you agree this is wrong, thank you.
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Local_councils_and_local_government_Blue_Badges_should_be_National/?aSummmb 
Comments
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Parking is an absolute nightmare and if the blue badge scheme isn't applied fairly then it can make things difficult both financially and in terms of access. Most people are completely clueless on the subject.
Public transport in this country is a joke if you are disabled and planning trips can be a nightmare. If you have to unload two wheelchairs from a vehicle and there is nowhere to park then you can imagine the stress.
Pay fora couple of hours there as you were already there and then do something else.
I had already paid for wristbands for 3 in adventure island, lunch for 6 and sea life for 6 in advance. Didn't really have much choice.
SHG's advice is probably the best action to take. May be an idea in future to check local Councils policies on disabled parking and just boycott those who operate like this.
The whole premise of the Blue Badge scheme is to provide accessible parking for the benefit of those who have a disability, and who otherwise would be unable to access the destination where the parking space is.
Most people with disabilities find using public transport nigh impossible, (I found that out in part trying to get a pushchair across London when the kids were of that age) and the Blue Badge remedies that situation by giving them relatively close car parking.
I think that to give preference to local badges is totally unreasonable and pretty stingy too. Given that Blue Badge use should be reciprocal (i.e. someone from Southend can park in SadieJane's local disabled parking spaces) then the admin costs are covered off at the very least, even if there are a greater number of parking spots to manage in comparison.
As for the parking revenue lost to Southend Council - it really isn't going to be much, and quite frankly should be covered in the charges everyone else pays for parking - it is unlikely to be a massive sum is it?
It would be interesting to see if this ever ended up in court as a case of discrimination - I think there would be some very interesting arguments that could be had over this one.
Lastly, I think it's fair to ask just who Southend Council think they are. It's a pretty low blow to people who need just a little assistance in levelling the playing field to make it as easy as it is for those of us who are without disabilities. Human decency chucked out of the window....
The other massive problem is the amount of fraudulent use of blue badge parking permits which nobody does anything to address. They are handed out far too readily and loads of people use those of family members to avoid parking fees when the person is not with them. I have often been unable to park with my daughters because the spaces are taken by people using them fraudulently - if it was made a criminal offence and prosecuted then this might stop. It's caused me massive stress and numerous arguments over the years - it never ceases to amaze me how selfish some people are.
Most people are incredibly ignorant of the problems wheelchair users face and sadly this includes local authorities, the NHS, public transport, retailers, architects etc.... The list is endless.
The worst cases I see are in car parks(stations and retail) and in area where it's difficult to park. I've observed retail and station car parks where I'd say up to 50% of those I've seen park are using them fraudulently.
If it affected you personally you might take it more seriously and not be so trusting of the great British public. I have been transporting my daughters round in their wheelchairs for the last fifteen odd years and also worked in healthcare and rehab so I can make a pretty good judgement about such issues.
That said I can understand your frustration and there is widespread misuse of blue badge spaces from using someone's else's badge illegally to just parking in a disabled space because you can. There are a lot of very selfish, inconsiderate people out there.
I must have been with him a dozen times when his blue badge usage was questioned by everyone from the general public to police officers as it wasn't obvious he was disabled.
He used to take great pleasure in tapping his false leg with his car keys.
It is not always obvious why someone has a blue badge.
We managed fine over the years and it turned out we really didn't need one, but one of the reasons
we didn't apply was because he has an invisible disability, and this could of lead to confrontations
with people accusing us of being frauds, causing more stress than it was worth.
This site is worth reading.
https://invisibledisabilities.org/ida-books-pamphlets/accessibleparking/dontjudgebyappearances/
Back to the subject in hand, my opinion is that you should not have to pay for parking depending on
where you visit.
If a borough does not have any disabled people living in it, by law it would still have to make sure all
public buildings and transport connections are accessible to disabled people.
So why should the parking rules be different?
Westminster started the "local only" trend, due to the number of visitors to the West End and shortage of parking spaces in the Borough. Whether you agree with it or not, the logic was that they were trying to preserve free spaces for their own local tax payers.
I know someone with a heart condition who has a blue badge, and their is no outward sign of any disability. I believe there are also several former military personnel with PTSD who qualify for a badge.
Badge fraud is rife, but prosecutions are common. Bromley Borough has a "task force" dedicated to badge abuse and I believe many other councils do too. The most common error is not having the badge holder in the car when it is parked or when leaving the parking space.
I know a guy who visited a public pay car park (a Sussex town centre) and all spaces were full. He parked in the disabled space and paid the full fee.
A few days later he was contacted by the police to arrange a meeting at a time/place convenient for him. The meeting took place at his office where a uniformed PC asked him about the incident.
He explained that all the spaces were full, and he used the only type of space that was remaining (there were plenty of available badge spaces), his argument was that if the disabled spaces were full and a badge holder arrived - they would use a regular space, so why wouldn't the opposite apply?
The PC agreed, and no further action was taken.
We live on an island - space will always be a factor in one form or another.
- Removing coach spaces from the largest of the seafront car parks, so that coaches have to park on roads around the town.
- Demolishing a perfectly workable roundabout at Victoria Circus (the clue is in the name) and replacing it with an awful traffic light system that snarls the town up - They were more concerned with picking up a (Thames Gateway?) grant, than in actually thinking about how the money could be properly used.
- Introducing shared vehicle/pedestrian spaces where no-one has a clue what's going on.
- Sticking the world's most hideous statue (note: it's by a Belgian artist) outside Victoria Station. It does look better now though after a local stuck a pair of Vans on the woman's feet and gave the bloke a skateboard.
- Lighting the above statue from a solitary in-pavement uplighter placed underneath the woman's legs. Consequently when it's dark you see nothing of the statue but a pair of glowing shins.
- Rejecting countless proposals to redevelop the pier. All my life we've been waiting for something to go down there. None of the submitted plans were perfect, but any one of them would have been better than nothing.
- Refusing to accept rubbish from neighbouring boroughs resulting in 10 mile cross-town trips for people with with rubbish to dispose of, adding to the towns traffic and fly tipping problems. (In fairness to the council, I think this happens elsewhere and is a consequence of poorly written legislation).
I worked for the DfT for many years and actually ran the Blue (or Orange as it was at the time) Badge Section.
As you know, the Blue Badge Scheme only applies on-street. Therefore, rightly or wrongly, councils do not have to give free parking to badge holders in their off-street car parks. And many councils throughout the land do indeed not allow badge holders to park free in off-street car parks.
However, on-street parking is a completely different kettle of fish. Forget about the situation in central London - the 4 authorities have never been part of the national scheme - but elsewhere local authorities are obliged to give free parking to badge holders where others have to pay. So I don't understand why Southend are now stating that Blue Badge holders cannot park at on-street parking meters free of charge without a local badge. Unless the law has changed, they simply can't do that.
Are you sure the meter spaces you claim you now cannot park on without a local Badge are on a public highway? If so, I would suggest you raise the matter with the DfT immediately.