Govt cracks down on blue badge fraud
Posted by Fiona Birkwood
The government is cracking down on motorists who abuse the disabled parking system in the UK.
Blue badges are used by over 2.5 million disabled people each year, allowing these individuals to stop in parking spaces close to important services.
However an increasing number of people are fraudulently using badges that have been cancelled in order to park in the conveniently-located spots.
Transport minister Norman Baker said: "The Blue Badge Scheme makes a real difference to millions of disabled people every day. However, it is clear that it is in real need of modernisation after 40 years without major reform."
Local authorities have now been given the power to recover badges that have been cancelled and misused.
Also, handwritten badges are to be replaced with standard electronic versions, which are harder to forge.
Back in December, the Shropshire Star reported that a man had received a £40 parking fine for accidentally stopping in a space that was designated for disabled people.
Les Potter told the newspaper that the parking bay's special markings were covered in snow when he left his car.
It would help if the picture of the person entitled to the badge was on the displayed side then everyone would know if the person carried in the vehicle was entitled to use it
As a Wheelchair user I find it annoying to wait for over 3o minutes to get a disabled space only to see people returning to their cars with big bags of shopping in each hand. If they can walk around carrying shopping like this for over 30 minutes, they don’t need a special bay closer to the shops.