Petition to Parliament now active to exempt Blue Badge drivers and other disabled from LTN's

[Mikespenser]

There is an active petition now to Parliament that is NATIONAL and not limited as the government has always rejected petitions against LTN's as a local issue only. The petition is to cover ALL Blue Badge disabled drivers throughout the UK and people with life threatening health issues like asthma, diabetes, epilepsy and more to be exempt from being penalized and fined by having to pass through LTN's and other unspecified road restrictions. The petition asks it to be made mandatory that this exemption be added to the DVLA Vehicle database and mandatory it is passed on to ALL of the Councils in the UK, including England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland along with the request for the vehicle owners name and address from the vehicle car's registration number so as PCN's, fines and penalties are not issued in the first instance. The petition will last until May 24th, 2024. Please sign and share and don't forget after signing go to your email to verify the email address that will be sent. Please take a picture of the QR code and show to people who when just pointing at it with their phones (if they have a barcode scanning app) with bring up the petition's signing page. Please don't be selfish and ask,"why just the disabled be exempt". It's because unless you are disabled or know someone who is you cannot understand the hardships it already is to be discriminated against, either directly or indirectly, subtlety or without care or even knowledge of the existence of your disability.

The QR code to scan, save and pass on is:
The URL to the petitions is: Petition: Exempt Blue Badge drivers from Low Traffic Neighbourhoods

 

[Pickman's model]

gets popcorn and deck chair

 

[8ball]

I agree with this - I regularly have to deal with being discriminated against by the expectation that I obey the speed limit.

 

[danny la rouge]

I’m a blue badge holder, but I’m not sure what the petition wants me to be exempt from.

 

[brogdale]

My understanding is that the Blue badge applies to an individual, not a vehicle?
Petition fail?

 

[MickiQ]

I thought epileptics weren't allowed to drive? Aren't LTN's basically signs and bollards so how would an exemption work?

 

[Sue]

I’m a blue badge holder, but I’m not sure what the petition wants me to be exempt from.

Just exempt exempt. Jeez.

 

[8ball]

I thought epileptics weren't allowed to drive? Aren't LTN's basically signs and bollards so how would an exemption work?

Depends how long since your last seizure iirc.

Also, an exemption would involve ignoring the signs, I assume. Plus maybe retractable bollards.

 

[krtek a houby]

I thought epileptics weren't allowed to drive? Aren't LTN's basically signs and bollards so how would an exemption work?

You have to go a year or two without a seizure. Iirc.

 

[Elpenor]

What about adding in exemptions for speeding, parking fines, dangerous driving, blowing up Ulez cameras and ram raiding as well?

You’ve got to negotiate from a position of strength, sure you might not get every demand but you’ll get some of them.

 

[Raheem]

I thought epileptics weren't allowed to drive? Aren't LTN's basically signs and bollards so how would an exemption work?

You'd be allowed to drive into bollards, maybe.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

My understanding is that the Blue badge applies to an individual, not a vehicle?

that's my understanding. i've parked my car with a blue badge a few times when with disabled friends / relatives who had them - in both cases i'm thinking of, they haven't owned a car.

there is a 'disabled driver' tax class that can be applied for for a specific vehicle (it gets reduced, or possibly zero rate, car tax - i'm not sure what you have to do to prove you're entitled to this, and whether the criteria are the same as for getting a blue badge - knowing how things work in this country, probably not)

this would only be practical for anything that's number plate recognition / camera enforced, not anything where a road has physically been blocked, and isn't that most LTN roads?

one snag with anything like that is that other car drivers can end up following an exempt vehicle if it's not obvious why it's exempt - buses and taxis (for example) are generally recognisable, and one argument against letting minicabs use bus lanes etc is that other car drivers will not realise and will follow a minicab and then get caught.

i'm not going in to all the arguments for and against LTN's and how they have been planned / implemented here.

i recognise that some disabled people rely on a car more than some non disabled people do. i also recognise that some disabled people rely on public transport more than some non disabled people do.

i can see that the occasional need to go a slightly longer way round on some journeys is a potential inconvenience, but not convinced it's a major hardship.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

I thought epileptics weren't allowed to drive? Aren't LTN's basically signs and bollards so how would an exemption work?

People who are entitled to eg mobility rates don't necessarily have to be able to drive themselves, someone else can drive a vehicle for them, a child might be entitled to disability benefits, but a non-disabled parent is the registered owner/user of the vehicle. For adults, sometimes vehicles can be adapted, but also there may be disabled adults who are unable to drive themselves, but maybe a partner/spouse or family member or carer drives them around.

While some people with epilepsy might choose to pay for public transport and/or taxis with whatever disability benefits they receive, others might choose to get a mobility vehicle and have someone else drive them.

I understand some epileptics can drive if their condition is well-controlled with medication and they haven't had any seizures for X amount of time. (Not sure how long )

 

[SpookyFrank]

Asthma is mentioned. A terrible condition for sure. If only there was something that could be done to reduce the number of kids developing asthma.

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

if the blue badge owner is the registered keeper of the vehicle it gets exempted from various toll charges (dartford for one) for the london congestion charge they can register up to 2 vehicles to be exempted (if they don't drive themselves) with TFL by paying a one off £10 fee and supplying proofs.

A lot of LTNs are not physically and public service blocked but CCTV controlled with ANPR so that emergency vehicles can still go through; so it could work.

 

[Silas Loom]

if the blue badge owner is the registered keeper of the vehicle it gets exempted from various toll charges (dartford for one) for the london congestion charge they can register up to 2 vehicles to be exempted (if they don't drive themselves) with TFL by paying a one off £10 fee and supplying proofs.

A lot of LTNs are not physically and public service blocked but CCTV controlled with ANPR so that emergency vehicles can still go through; so it could work.

Yes, it’s technically feasible.

But if you qualify for a blue badge, an LTN-related delay to the car part of the journey is likely to be neither here nor there. The soul-sapping bit is invariably the last hundred yards, which is researched and planned well in advance, and is where the badge is essential, because otherwise it might be an obstacle-strewn three hundred yards.

Zones which need LTNs may well often be the ones where parking is so much in demand and the roads are so narrow that councils restrict blue badge privileges, or only extend them to residents. A blue badge isn’t much use in central London.

I will eat my hat with festive clotted cream and a sprig of holly if Mikespenser is a blue badge holder and genuinely believes that his car journeys would be massively improved by free access to LTNs.

 

[klang]

I love the 'don't be selfish' line.

 

[alex_]

Asthma is mentioned. A terrible condition for sure. If only there was something that could be done to reduce the number of kids developing asthma.

Maybe we should let asthmatics drive everywhere ?

 

[brogdale]

Asthma is mentioned. A terrible condition for sure. If only there was something that could be done to reduce the number of kids developing asthma.

A good point, well made.
And the thought of the Govt. doing something to help asthmatics is quite laughable when they deliberately exclude sufferers from free prescriptions on the grounds that ...well...probably because there's so many of them and nothing more.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Maybe we should let asthmatics drive everywhere ?

Everyone can already drive everywhere.

 

[MickiQ]

Blue Badges are allocated on a personal basis, Before my Mum went into the care home she had a Blue Badge (for severe arthritis) and it lived in my parents hallway. It was on my sisters checklist for which particular one of her children or grandchildren had drawn the short straw to be Nan's taxi driver on an given day. (Ignore Grandad's wittering, make sure Nan puts her coat and shoes on, check she has her purse and medication and pick up the Blue Badge so you can park close to where you're going, Don't forget to put it back for the next person)
This petition has 306 signatures now and had 281 when I first saw this thread last night so I can see it growing but doubt it will get to the 10,000 minimum to get a response.
I agree with Silas Loom though I bet the petition's author doesn't have a Blue Badge or even really understand what an LTN is. The idea is not to restrict people from driving in an LTN but from driving through an LTN, people that live there carry on before just maybe their route in and out of it is a bit longer and less direct than before. But that 's one of the great things about having a car eh? distance and time are no longer necessarily the same thing.
I suspect there is a certain amount of hypocrisy when it comes to people objecting to LTN's I think a great many people would want to live in one but object to having to drive the long way round because other people might want to live in one as well.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I suspect there is a certain amount of hypocrisy when it comes to people objecting to LTN's I think a great many people would want to live in one but object to having to drive the long way round because other people might want to live in one as well.

There are already privatised LTNs in many places, where posh estates have remote control barriers to prevent rat running. Never once saw the level of indignation about those that you now get about council-enforced LTNs.

A lot of the objections related to disabled people (and some LTNs do genuinely seem to be ill thought-out in terms of accessibility) vanish pretty quickly when you point out that everyone on the affected street parks on the pavement and so they clearly don't give a tapdancing fuck about disabled people or anyone else.

 

[sparkybird]

Do you think Mikespenser will be back?

 

[Elpenor]

I’d rather have his brother Frank tbh

 

[MickiQ]

Do you think Mikespenser will be back?

I think he was a drive by poster, came here with his petition wrapped around a brick to lob through the window before scarpering. Petition is up to 333 signatures now.

 

[brogdale]

I think he was a drive by poster, came here with his petition wrapped around a brick to lob through the window before scarpering. Petition is up to 333 signatures now.

Just 99,667 to go for Frank's petrol head fanatics

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

There are already privatised LTNs in many places, where posh estates have remote control barriers to prevent rat running. Never once saw the level of indignation about those that you now get about council-enforced LTNs.

A lot of the objections related to disabled people (and some LTNs do genuinely seem to be ill thought-out in terms of accessibility) vanish pretty quickly when you point out that everyone on the affected street parks on the pavement and so they clearly don't give a tapdancing fuck about disabled people or anyone else.

indeed, warwick gardens in kensington has barriers at night, nto a private estate, a major public road
also, dulwich has a toll road none of that paupers LTN council stuff

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

There is an active petition now to Parliament that is NATIONAL and not limited as the government has always rejected petitions against LTN's as a local issue only. The petition is to cover ALL Blue Badge disabled drivers throughout the UK and people with life threatening health issues like asthma, diabetes, epilepsy and more to be exempt from being penalized and fined by having to pass through LTN's and other unspecified road restrictions. The petition asks it to be made mandatory that this exemption be added to the DVLA Vehicle database and mandatory it is passed on to ALL of the Councils in the UK, including England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland along with the request for the vehicle owners name and address from the vehicle car's registration number so as PCN's, fines and penalties are not issued in the first instance. The petition will last until May 24th, 2024. Please sign and share and don't forget after signing go to your email to verify the email address that will be sent. Please take a picture of the QR code and show to people who when just pointing at it with their phones (if they have a barcode scanning app) with bring up the petition's signing page. Please don't be selfish and ask,"why just the disabled be exempt". It's because unless you are disabled or know someone who is you cannot understand the hardships it already is to be discriminated against, either directly or indirectly, subtlety or without care or even knowledge of the existence of your disability.

The QR code to scan, save and pass on is:
The URL to the petitions is: Petition: Exempt Blue Badge drivers from Low Traffic Neighbourhoods

Oh bugger off.

 

[alex_]

indeed, warwick gardens in kensington has barriers at night, nto a private estate, a major public road
also, dulwich has a toll road none of that paupers LTN council stuff

They have to pay to maintain the roads though

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

They have to pay to maintain the roads though

??