Kentish Express Ashford & District
On wrong side of blue badge bureaucrats
I swear they do it merely to raise money. Trouble is, to my mind they’re raising this pocket of money by unreasonable bureaucratic means. I’m referring here to the matter of blue badges - the piece of card that gives freedom to geriatrics like me to have their cars parked in otherwise disallowed spaces.
On one side of the card is the name and photograph of its user, on the other side, the expiry date of the card. Instructions are given that, when the card is in use, the side with the expiry date should be uppermost.
It’s a fact that, when the driver is concentrating on something less important than displaying the card right side up, it often gets chucked on the ledge by the windscreen without due care and attention being taken to show the ‘correct’ side. If this is not done and the ‘wrong’ side is uppermost, a passing traffic warden will feel free to stick a ticket under a windscreen wiper, which informs the driver of liability to a seventy-pound penance. If this is paid within a given space of time, the fine is reduced by half. This is a rip-off.
We live in a computerdriven age. It would be simple to check the name on the card with computerised records in order to validate its use. Alternatively, it would pose no hardship for the designers of the cards to print the expiry date on both sides. As things stand, it must give some bureaucratic minion a frisson of delight whenever a human has fallen into the trap.
As things stand, it must give some bureaucratic minion a frisson of delight whenever a human has fallen into the trap
It was pleasing to learn that Ashford council will be providing for some of the Afghani refugees. It was not pleasing to learn that some microbe-minded individuals had posted hate-filled comments on ‘social’ media. The Home Secretary is making all the right noises when it comes to these particular refugees. It would be nice if she were to recognise that it is the same desperation which drives other refugees to risk everything in order to find a safe haven.