Disabled Motorists Feeling Black and Blue

The Department for Transport has increased the power of civil enforcement officers (traffic wardens to you or me!) to confiscate forged or fraudulently used Blue Badges.

Intended for use exclusively by disabled motorists, blue badge abuse has become alarmingly widespread – something which the new Disabled Persons’ Parking Badges Act aims to address. Worrying recent figures suggest that almost one fifth of all badges are being misused.  Badges are reportedly sold for up to £1,500 on the black market.

New Powers

Until now, enforecement officers could issue a Penalty Charge Notice if a badge was spotted being used fraudulently – but couldn’t do anything about removing it from circulation.  The new crackdown grants wardens the power to seize misused badges to help tackle the problem, something only police officers could do previously.

As part of the new measures, local enforecement teams are now also expected to verify the validity of all badges against a council issued national register when doing their rounds.

Whether motivated by laziness or a reluctance to pay for on street parking, Blue Badge misuse is widely experienced across the UK.  Many offences are reported by incensed members of the public.  If caught, culprits can expect to face up to £1,000 in fines.

Nuisance

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “Motorists who pretend to be disabled to get free parking are a serious nuisance because they prevent genuine Blue Badge holders from using parking bays designed for their use.

“These changes will make it easier for authorities to seize badges being used illegally.”

Disabled Motoring

Helen Dolphin, Director of Policy and Campaigns at Disabled Motoring UK commented: “I’m really delighted that more powers have been given to civil enforecement officers to help them tackle abuse of the Blue Badge Scheme.

“Unfortunately too few local authorities have taken abuse seriously, which is why we now have such a high percentage of badges being used fraudulently.

“I hope this new Act will encourage more authorities to look at their policies on tackling abuse and actually take positive action to tackle this issue.”