Blue Badge parking permits in England and Scotland

Not directly answering your question, at all, but I am planning to bring my 89 year old mother to Scotland. I've been perusing castle websites and they generally have an impressive amount of information on handicapped accessibility, that you might find helpful at some point. Also, caregivers get in free to some places. One place said that having a blue badge would be sufficient documentation. I contacted them and said I was from the U.S. and wouldn't have a blue badge. They told me to bring the handicapped card I hang from the rear view mirror.

The problem is we are traveling around the country, so which council do we apply too.

The councils that have local government authority in the area you are visiting.

For example this is the process applied by Cornwall County Council:

Using a non European Union disabled parking badge in Cornwall

If you want to use a disabled parking badge from a country outside the European Union, we need some information from you before you arrive in Cornwall.

This will help ensure you don’t receive a penalty charge notice.

Please email [email protected] at least a week before your visit. You will need to send us the information detailed below:

A copy of the disabled parking badge you will be using

Your vehicle registration number (we understand you might not be able to tell us this if you’re hiring a car)

Dates of your stay in Cornwall

A general idea of where you’ll be in Cornwall (for example, Padstow or Truro) – you don’t have to provide exact locations or a daily travel plan
When we confirm that you can use your badge you will then be able to park as detailed below.

The Blue Badge scheme is basically designed only for UK residents - the badges are issued by the place where the person lives but are valid everywhere. My council advices that applications take up to 6 weeks to process and gives no advice to foreign visitors in hire cars because the chances of getting one is so small. Most applications are backed by documentation from other government support schemes which foreign visitors won't have anyway. And many of the foreign visitors are from europe in their own cars, which are basically impossible to give parking tickets to anyway, those with their own national wheelchair logo badges (which are also usually blue) are often given some leeway anyway. Your problem begins if you have a UK registered hire car because those can definately be ticketed and the hire company will add this to your payment card. The problem gets bigger if you use privately managed parking, these businesses are often nothing short of pirates when you infringe their rules, with huge fees which again wil be sent to the hire company. You know you are on one of those sites because they have signs the size of newpapers with their rules using more words than the constitution positioned so high you can barely read them - avoid if in doubt. The middle ground is those places which just have some reserved spaces when you would probably be OK just explaining your situation - especially where you do that before you pay for admission.......

There is information about eligibility amd applying here:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/help-for-disabled-travellers1/blue-badge-scheme/applying-for-a-blue-badge/

As has previously been stated, these are intended for UK residents and the eligibility criteria are strict, also the amount of supporting evidence. My husband's application took four months to be approved.

As others have said the Blue Badge scheme is simply not designed for visitors to the UK.

You should also note that whilst the word "handicapped" is still in regular use in North America it definitely is not in the UK and you are likely to offend if you use it. Please use the word disabled instead.

FWIW, the term "handicapped" is not in regular use in the parts of North America I frequent.

Good to know about "handicapped" vs. disabled. I am a little surprised, my area tends to be quite progressive for the U.S. I did a google search and indeed the cards are referred to as "disability" card, but then the two words seemed to be used interchangeably in the text, and parking spots are labeled as handicapped. My mother's permit says handicapped. Sounds like we are in transition to more appropriate terminology.

Last month in Ireland, I just hung my handicap placard over the rear-view mirror and no one hassled me when I parked in handicap parking spaces. I use a cane so I can't speak about wheelchairs. Some of the B&B's we stayed in had a handicap spot right in front which worked out nicely.

I can't speak for Ireland, but in England (wales and Scotland may be different), there are two sorts of parking - private land and council/local authority parking.
In the latter, you must have a blue badge to use the disabled spaces. Otherwise you risk a fine.
Then there are the private car parks - mostly run by commercial companies who are there to make money (the word pirate has been used, among others). It is possible that you might get away with using a foreign "handicapped" placard, but most likely you will incur a penalty parking charge.