Blue badge crackdown?

anotheoldgit | 13:59 Mon 14th Feb 2011 | News

30 Answers

http://tinyurl.com/6eh9gfb

After the 'crackdown' on the number of immigrants coming into this country, the 'crackdown' on benefit cheats, the 'crackdown' on ASBOs etc etc.

Are we now really going to see a 'crackdown' on Blue Badge holders, or is this yet just another sound bite from the Government?

Yes the scheme is vastly abused, what do some suggest to make it less abused?

The story contains a number of false statements,

1/ GPs do not issue Blue Badges, they only fill in the patients disabilities on the application form, that the council sends them.

2/ The badge, is not a simple slip of paper which is easy to photocopy, it is laminated.

3/ The badge has always included a photo of the holder, who doesn't necessary have to own a car or indeed even know how to drive, but they do need to take it with them when someone is taking them in their car.

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ummmm

Blue badges are hard enough to get already.

youngmafbog

A difficult one, but yes, it is still part of what is wrong withour society today.

All abuses need to be clamped down on. The Noo labour something for nothing brigade need to understand teh party is over.

redman41

I was asked to take part in a brief Town Centre Survey by a young Lady about 3 weeks ago regarding the merits of Blue Badge Holders, and whether I thought the system was being abused. I had to decline as I had an appointment to attend to.
Genuine Disabled Blue Badge Holders are fine by me, but there is fiddling going on.

VHG

We had a woman in our town recently who worked for a large financial company / bank.

She had been using a blue badge for a number of years to get free parking while at work, and when they did a check they found she was not entitled to use it, it was for a relative.

I believe lots of blue badges are used to avoid the congestion charge in London, when the person in the car has no right to have the blue badge.

I think many people carry the blue badge in the car if they often carry a disabled person around (mother etc), but then often use it to get free parking when they HAVE NOT got the elderly relative with them.

Difficult to know how to clamp down on it.

Heavier fines, or even confiscate the car in extreeme cases, if a person has been abusing the blue badge for a long period of time.

VHG

Having read the article in the Telegraph, it seems VERY badly researched.

Many of the things he mentions (like AOG says) are either not true, or are already being done.

It is almost as though they dug out an old article from 10 years ago and reprinted it without bothering to read it.

Mamyalynne

I too had to check the date of the paper as you say, badges are laminated and have the photo on them. What a badly written piece it is.

anotheoldgit

Question Author

At my local supermarket they had a great scheme for disabled drivers, they allocated an area in front of the store and enclosed it with barriers.

One had to go to the store's customer services with one's Blue Badge and car or cars registration numbers, to get them put on the computer.

When one arrived at the barrier an electronic device recognised the Reg. number and the barrier lifted, the same on exit.

I know not what happened, but the barriers are now permanently lifted and anyone can enter, the difference being that there are now signs that state "abusers of the Blue Badge scheme, will be clamped"

Surprise, surprise, never seen it happen though.

jake-the-peg

The labour party is responsible for abuses of disabled parking?

I think you're really stretching it now VHG! Perhaps you'd like to blame them for December's snow or Algeria's clamp down on protestors too!

As for point 3 AOG - note that the photo is on the card but not on the side that needs to be placed face up.

However I don't think that'd help much because it relys on a parking warden being there when the person returns to the car. Even then they can claim that they have just been dropping off the disabled person.

If you really want to clamp down on it you will inevitably cause some inconveniance to genuine users that is unavoidable.

I'd suggest starting by linking the badge to a particular car you may even see some prosecutions of disabled people for allowing the badge that is assigned to them to be misused.

That of course would be absolute front page Daily Mail fodder - they'd have a field day!

So in the end I suspect the crack-down will be a bit of a flurry of publicity followed by a few superficial changes

Jan1957

I agree that this story is very out of date. It is not easy to get a blue badge these days. Thanks for reminding me though that mine needs renewing in seven weeks.

ethandron

it used to be linked to a particular car somem years ago when it was orange, if i remember rightly. i don't actually see how it would deter misusers to go back to that to be honest. what it would do is curtain disabled people from trying to lead as normal a life as possible and being stuck to having to be transported in that one car.

anotheoldgit

Question Author

Thought just entered my head.

Would a bus be allowed to stop on a double yellow line to let a person (holding a blue badge) exit the bus?

dustypuss

I think that there should be a warden purely to police the blue badge scheme it would probley not stop misuse all together but I think It would make some people think twice about using it wrongly.

rov1100

It wouldn't be too difficult to have a central database of blue badge holders. Just like forged or out of date car tax disks an official could soon check their validity.

flip_flop

Allow holders of blue badges to continue to park where they like (this makes sense if they aren't particularly mobile) but stop them from having free parking and make them pay the congestion charge.

I've never quite understood why blue badge holders don't have to pay to park - which is probably a subject for another thread - but if the 'only' benefit of a blue badge is being able to park on double yellows I would imagine the abuse would stop overnight!

anotheoldgit

Question Author

dustypuss

That is a very good suggestion, in fact I think it should be mandatory for all supermarkets etc to provide a person to marshal their Blue Badge parking places.

-- answer removed --

jake-the-peg

The problem is not really forged holders I don't think - it's people using the blue badges of other people when they're not in the car with them.

However supermarkets don't enforce them - not that they're obliged to - because they don't want to upset their customers. If government made them do so and levelled the playing field then that might help.

But I think the chances of the Tories interfering with the way private enterprises like supermarkets deal with their customers are pretty remote

anotheoldgit

Question Author

flip_flop

/// I've never quite understood why blue badge holders don't have to pay to
park -///

No I have never been able to understand that.

They have special spaces allocated on open car parks, and park for free, yet some of these car parks are yards and yards away from the main shops.

How can they physically walk that huge distance to the shops, then walk round these shops if they are disabled enough that warrants them a Blue Badge?

Same as the supermarket spaces, placed near to the entrance to cut down the walking distance, then they spend a hour walking around the huge stores doing their shopping?????