Blue badge permits now held by 1 in 15 adults in England

[ad_1] Councils in England have been urged to crack down on the misuse of blue badge parking permits – professional and counterfeit – because the proportion of individuals holding them has reached one in 15.

The AA referred to as for extra to be executed to detect offences corresponding to folks utilizing faux or stolen badges.

The permits, which have to be renewed each three years, assist folks with disabilities or well being situations to entry retailers and companies by enabling them to park nearer.

In London, additionally they exempt holders from having to pay the £18 day by day congestion cost.

The newest Division for Transport (DfT) information exhibits that 3.07 million blue badges had been held as of 31 March final yr, with greater than 6% of the estimated 46 million adults in England holding one.

Edmund King, the AA’s president, mentioned: “The blue badge scheme is a mobility lifeline for tens of millions of professional customers and their households.

“Our concern shouldn't be absolutely the variety of badges issued however the estimates that as much as one in 5 badges could also be utilized by somebody aside from the holder or authorised person.

“Fraud is a matter which might embrace household misuse, use after loss of life, counterfeit badges and theft and resale of badges.

“We might welcome a crackdown on illegitimate use of badges to safeguard the deserving customers.”

Whereas there aren't any latest figures for the price of blue badge fraud within the UK, the Nationwide Fraud Authority, a now defunct Dwelling Workplace company, estimated it to be £46m per yr in 2011.

The DfT information confirmed the English areas with the very best and lowest percentages of badge holders had been the north-east (6.1%) and London (3.5%) respectively.

In 2019, the eligibility standards for blue badges was prolonged past folks with seen disabilities, to incorporate these with non-visible situations corresponding to Parkinson’s, dementia and epilepsy.

Greater than two-fifths of the badges issued in 2024/25 had been awarded with out additional evaluation.

Relying on the situation, the permits usually allow holders to park freed from cost in pay-and-display bays and for as much as three hours on single and double yellow traces.

A number of councils have reported prosecutions for blue badge misuse in latest months.

Croydon council in south London mentioned in January that seven offenders had been ordered to pay a complete of practically £6,000 in a mixture of fines, court docket prices and a sufferer surcharge.

The instances concerned badges which had been stolen, counterfeit or belonging to another person.

Final September, Oxfordshire county council reported two blue badge misuse convictions, together with a person caught utilizing his useless grandmother’s badge.

A Native Authorities Affiliation spokesperson mentioned: “Though the overwhelming majority of badges are used appropriately, there's a small minority who fraudulently use different folks’s, both to save cash by parking in disabled bays or by means of laziness, depriving somebody with a real want.

“To assist councils win the combat towards blue badge fraud, residents should preserve tipping councils off about folks they believe are illegally utilizing a badge, taking into account folks’s want for a badge may not be apparent.”