Disabled Parking is a minefield across London

Mr Mustard has to check this post in respect of the rules about paid for parking bays, as apart from the blue area above, he thinks that blue badge holders can park for free in those bays and he has put that in some boroughs you can't. He probably put "no" if he couldn't find "yes" on the relevant council website but forgot that the blue badge scheme sets the rules and says you can park for free unless time is limited for non disabled motorists and then time can be limited for blue badge holders. Parking is far too complicated. (10 December 2014)

Mr Mustard has a friend with a blue badge who tries very hard to avoid parking tickets. She thinks about what he has said every time she goes out and parks. He instructed her clearly about how to park properly in Barnet but then she went to Southwark, parked in a residents bay which is perfectly permissible in Barnet, but not in Southwark and got a PCN. How would one know this?

Mr Mustard thought he had better check the whole of London for her. He looked on the London Councils website but that didn't easily give him the answer. He could buy a copy of a guide from this website but it is probably out of date by now.

The map above, which comes from a joint website by the 4 authorities concerned, tells us where the rules are stricter than is the norm but nothing seems to tell us where there are helpful concessions so Mr Mustard burnt yesterday afternoon in trying to find out. He painfully looked through 30+ council websites and has probably got some of it wrong, due to difficulties encountered in actually finding what he was looking for, so please check in advance of your visit by phoning the local authority which you are going to visit  rather than relying 100% on what Mr Mustard has put up in good faith (there may also be local signs which assist you in car parks for example, or on meters in the street which halfway through the small print may mention the disabled). If any reader spots errors for their borough do please send an email to mrmustard@zoho.com

	Free parking for blue badge holders?
	Single	Double	Residents	Pay by phone	Shared	Car
	yellow *	yellow *	bay	Pay & display***	use bays	parks ~
Barking & Dagenham	3 hours	3 hours	no	no	no	some
Barnet	3 hours	3 hours	yes	yes@	yes	yes
Bexley	3 hours	3 hours	no	no	no	no
Brent	3 hours	3 hours	no	yes	no	no
Bromley	3 hours	3 hours	no	yes	no	yes
Camden	some (**)	some (**)	some (**)	some (**)	no	no
City of London	no	no	no	no	no	no
Croydon	3 hours	3 hours	no	yes	yes	no
Ealing	3 hours	3 hours	no	yes	no	no
Enfield	3 hours	3 hours	yes	no	no	yes
Greenwich	3 hours	3 hours	no	yes	no	yes
Hackney	3 hours	3 hours	no	yes	yes	yes
Hammersmith & Fulham	3 hours	3 hours	no	no	yes	no
Haringey	3 hours	3 hours	no	no	no	no
Harrow	3 hours	3 hours	Harrow BB only	yes	no	most
Havering	3 hours	3 hours	no	yes	no	no
Hillingdon	3 hours	3 hours	yes	yes	possibly	yes
Hounslow	3 hours	3 hours	usually	usually	usually	yes
Islington	3 hours	3 hours	yes	yes	possibly	n/a
Kensington & Chelsea	20 mins	20 mins	no	no	no	no
Kingston	3 hours	3 hours	no	no	no	no
Lambeth	3 hours	3 hours	yes	yes	possibly	yes
Lewisham	3 hours	3 hours	yes	yes	yes	no
Merton	3 hours	3 hours	yes	yes	possibly	no
Newham	3 hours	3 hours	yes	yes	no	no
Redbridge	3 hours	3 hours	no	yes	no	yes
Richmond	3 hours	3 hours	yes	yes	possibly	yes
Southwark	3 hours	3 hours	no	yes	yes	no
Sutton	3 hours	3 hours	no	yes	no	yes
Tower Hamlets	3 hours	3 hours	no	yes	yes	n/k
Waltham Forest	3 hours	3 hours	n/k	n/k	n/k	free
Wandsworth	3 hours	3 hours	yes	yes	yes	yes
Westminster	no	no	no	no	no	no
~ except in disabled spaces that are marked as free
* unless there is a loading restriction in which case do not park there.
** you cannot park for free in the green zone
*** you get one hour free in addition to paid for time

So you can see what a complex situation it is. Mr Mustard wanted to put up a simple table with yes/no answers but that simply isn't possible. Barnet are generous to the disabled (although will happily give you a parking ticket if you transgress in any way) as are Wandsworth, with Lewisham and Hillingdon not far behind. In Central London the disabled have to compete for a limited number of designated bays and given the problem with step free access on most of the tube network (a mere 66 tube stations are step free) that is the very area where more spaces are needed, especially near hospitals.

The main thing that Mr Mustard learnt, after what a morass disabled parking provision is, was that if you pay for, say, 2 hours parking, you get given 3 as a blue badge holder (it won't be on the pay-and-display ticket but the traffic warden should know not to issue a PCN). This may help you with your appeal if you have a PCN for having gone over the paid for time and your blue badge was on display.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

@ It has been brought to Mr Mustard's attention that in Edgware new signs were installed in December which limit parking for blue badge holders in pay to park bays to a maximum of 3 hours. It isn't like that in Mill Hill or High Barnet. There are, Mr Mustard is told, only 3 dedicated disabled parking bays in Edgware so this new policy makes life difficult for blue badge holders who have to travel into London for a hospital appointment, but cannot walk very far, and need to use Edgware tube station.

Is blue badge time in pay to park bays limited in this way in your part of the borough?