Why I still park on double yellow lines (From Bournemouth Echo)

Another ploy local councils use increasingly to stop Blue Badge holders from exercising their rights to park on double yellow lines is to paint 'No Loading' lines beside the pavements. This has the effect of making Blue badge rights (a concession offered by the EU) void and forcing disabled people to walk further than it is necessary.

Don't worry about double-yellow lines. The police don't and the local council won't bother either.
(Just have a look outside Tesco Express by the Vicarage roundabout in Kinson/Northbourne and ask the shoppers who have to look through the illegally parked vehicles' windscreens or worse before pulling out onto the busy road.It beggars belief!)

Is the word illegal really that hard to understand?

So the writer of this letter is suggesting he would really rather wait for 12 or more minutes for a disabled space, than walk a few extra yards?

Come off it mate - if your wife can walk around Sainsbury's, surely she can walk another couple of yards?!

As a disabled person, I know all too well how even an extra few paces can cause pain and difficulty - but to expect the council to spend money on more parking bays to be painted out beggars belief, when they are daily cutting back on essential services to the vulnerable!

If she can't walk that far, get her a wheelchair or leave her at home!

Morrigan -well said! I'm beginning to believe that there are more disabled drivers in this country than those deemed 'fit'

I just cannot help agreeing with what Morrigan said.

It is true that there are disabled and then there are ‘disabled’. Before my late ninety-one year old mother died last year, I tried so hard beforehand to keep her as active as possible. My mother really then needed the wide space of a handicap bay, just to simply get in and out of the car. It wasn’t just the walking, just her immobility.

Many times, I found all bays full up, especially at the Sovereign Centre car park in Boscombe. I saw what I considered as perfectly fit people parking in such bays and then seemingly without any problem, trundling off to do their shopping. So I had to dump my mother off near the entrance, park my car in an ordinary bay and catch up with her later. It was the reverse same after the shopping.

Many times, I saw other such bays that had space but for ‘mothers and children’. I was unsure as I still am today, if I could have parked there for my mother on her blue badge.

I have since suffered a hip operation and now although allowed to drive again, I find that getting in and out of my car in an ordinary bay, most difficult. Especially when some drivers park either over or close to the white line. Walking is also at the moment a great difficulty for me, but I can get there even if it takes a long time.

In my present situation, I now see many car drivers with ‘privileged’ parking: blue badge holders that are a lot fitter than they claim and mothers with children long outgrown the baby car seat. ‘Children’ I suppose is under sixteen.

The whole thing is an absolute joke. I am not intending to apply for a blue badge for my condition right now as I believe I will soon get back to normal again. But it has just made me see just how farcical most of it is.

Also, as Morrigan said, in my mother’s later years she was unable to walk very far and most definitely could not go shopping, even with me alongside. So I did it for her and parked up in a regular bay.

It’s also very interesting to note (I used to be a Home-carer and now reside in a Sheltered Home), that no properties (either Council or McCarthy and Stone retirement homes), provide any handicapped parking bays – just all normal ones.

Don’t you think that strange?