[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Neil

And come to think about it outside schools as well. I think many people are so lazy they want to park 6 inches from the school door.

I can relate with that living right across the road from a school.

The disabled bay marked out on the road in front of my flat is for any disabled driver displaying the Blue Badge and seeing as I’m the only one within a hundred yards of it, it is generally me. There are also railings along the edge of the footpath with a gap to allow my neighbours and me access to our flats.

One regular parks across the gap in the railings and is so close to the edge of the disabled bay that it is difficult, even impossible some times, to get out and back in, if someone does the same at the other end of the bay.

But if other drivers park and leave me sufficient room to get out and in and I go out during the day and especially close to around noon and 3:00 pm, when I get back you can bet your sweet life that a car has squeezed in and encroaches on the disabled bay leaving me with no room to get back in even though the disabled bay is three quarters empty.

Have a look with Google Earth at these coordinates - 53° 42’ 12.83” N - 2° 27’ 32.11” W

You can see my car in the disabled bay and the railings, at around 11:00 am about two years ago. How do I know? Look at the shadows cast by the trees, they are pointing North West, meaning that the sun is in the South East. At midday the sun is due South so the shadows would be pointing North. My previous car was red and I got this one, a blue car, in April 2006 so the snap shot had to be taken after then. If that snapshot had been taken two hours later or at around 3:00 pm you would see two busses parked in front of the school and cars nose to tail for a hundred yards either way on both sides of the road with cars trying to get by in both directions.