Orange badge / Blue badge signage.

[nukecad]

Bit of a strange one here.

I have recently been looking at the road signage in my town centre, longish story re the council not maintaining road signs.

One of the things I have noticed is that all the disabled parking spaces/bays on the main street and market square still have signs showing orange disabled symbols.

It was my understanding that these had been phased out and that signs should now show the blue symbol?

The best I can find online about this:

THE TRAFFIC SIGNS REGULATIONS AND GENERAL DIRECTIONS (TSRGD) 2002

19. A blue badge symbol for disabled badge holders replaces the orange badge symbol,
reflecting the change in design of the disabled persons' parking card. Signs including
the orange badge symbol can remain in place until 31 December 2009. Bay markings
for disabled badge holder parking spaces (diagram 1028.3) may be reduced to a width
of 1800mm where, on account of the nature of the traffic using the road, the width
of the carriageway is insufficient to accommodate a wider bay.

Does this mean that these bays with an orange symbol are no longer legally enforcable because the signs are wrong, and that anyone can park there without penalty?

[beau]

Or have your council made a gaff? Some have been known to with spellings, linings etc. I should query it with them and you may get an explanation.

[nukecad]

Well this is part of the original issue I was looking at.

The council have not been maintaining the road signs, and other signs, for years.
Some of them are so badly covered with moss/lichen/general trafic muck that they are virtually unreadable.
This does not look good when visitors try to read direction signs, remember I'm in Cumbria so we get a lot of tourists.
It also invalidates a lot of parking restrictions as parking restriction signs have to be clearly legible to be enforcable.

It was whilst I was looking at this with thoughts to contact the council, and maybe the local newspaper, about it that I noticed the disabled parking signs.
These particular signs are pretty clean, as are the residents parking and disc zone parking signs.

It would be nice to know if these are also invalid (sic) signs because of the orange symbol before contacting them.

[Lighttouch]

Orange badge signage is well out of date. Take some phots of signage and email to highways to complain. Copy in your local Councillor too.

I was able to get a Council owned car park re-tarmaced as I shamed them into doing it on health and safety grounds. The potholes had turned into craters and you had to drive around the holes which were six inches deep!

Make a fuss - it works!!

My local Sainsbury's has just refurbished it's car park and number recognition that clocks the time you arrive. After two hours stay you have to pay unless your disabled.

I'm also impressed with the Blue Badge parking signs that are polite but assertive!

Disabled-Parking.jpg

[fwipperie]

Orange badges go many years ago, over decade. Important to alert council so that they can correct

[Number7]

Orange badge signage was supposed to be phased out by 2010 so you're only 5 years behind the times Nukecad

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=56736

I'm guessing it would be easy peasy to challenge a ticket issued for parking in an Orange Badge controlled bay ?

[PaulG]

It maybe wise to be cautious, as for example where I live, the Market Place (on days with no market in situ) is actually a car park and not a road. The Market Place being run and maintained by the district council and is subject to byelaws, as opposed to the road around round it which is 'a road' and maintained by the County Council.

However to complicate matters, further along the road there are some parking bays either side of the road, but which are not part of the road (a double row cobble blocks with double yellow lines with no loding stripes painted thereon forms the edge of the road). The parking bays on the pavement side of this are again designated as a car park, however this is run by the town council and covered by seperate byelaws.

Just further up the road are more parking bays on the either side of the road and these are part of the road and run/maintained by the County Council. These are the only ones whose signs meet the requirments of the TSRGD.

As the parking on the first two come under local byelaws the signing does not have to conform to the TSRGD as they are not on a road, but legally form a 'car park'. Thus they can use signs that confirm to the byelaws, which can more or less mean anything (see how different councils sign their own car parks).

Both the town council and district council 'police' their respective car parks and the County Council 'police' the parking on the road.

Yes it is a bureaucratic nightmare but is a source of income for all three councils which none want to give up. Fortunately all three allow blue badge holders to park for free (at the moment anyway!!).

Paul

[nukecad]

Thanks for your answers up to now.

Paul,
Our market place is similar to yours, a large area which is used as a parking dic zone when the market is not on, with the main street running alonside. There are also other bays along the main street which is mainly double yellowed.
These are all policed by the same council employed wardens.

I know that the orange signs are well out of date and should have been replaced by 2010, but was wondering if this actualy made them unenforcable?

It's a bit of funny point as to if these market place parking areas/bays are classed as off road car parks or not.
One definition of an off road car park that I have seen is that it should be 'seperated from the highway and have one or more access point'.
This type of marketplace parking is only seperate by dint of being a different surface, and you can access anywhere along the full length.

As has been covered in previous threads; disabled bays in off road car parks (supermarkets, etc) are advisory only.

[fwipperie]

After all this time you would think all reference to orange badge will have gone