What Happens if You Park in a Disabled Parking Spot in Brazil. Should We Try This in Shepherd's Bush?

Here in Shepherd's Bush the abuse of Blue Badge parking permits can be a problem.  In my street, parking is free for Blue Badge holders, but in the five years that I have lived here, I have never seen anyone with a visible disability get out of a blue-badged car.  That isn't to say that there are no legitimate Blue Badge users, since many people with disabilities have no visible impairment, but it does suggest there might be more than the odd person using a Blue Badge who isn't necessarily entitled to do so.

Open to abuse?

The system is easy to game. As long as one family member has a Blue Badge, anyone can use their car, and park for free - though not legitimately, of course.  And, to be fair on our Council, they do occasionally send officers around the streets to check on Blue Badge holders, to make sure no-one is abusing the system, and hand out tickets to malefactors.

But with big cuts to local government spending already in place - and bigger cuts to come - enforcement is a slow and expensive process.

Perhaps the Brazilians have the right idea - a modern form of the old tar and feathers, designed to humiliate the perpetrator.

But, then maybe this has a bit too much of the whiff of vigilantism for Shepherd's Bush.

---Alex