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Driving out dishonesty
Hull City Council is enforcing the blue badge parking scheme regulations to protect the rights of disabled people
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Free this time: Carole Sewell parks in a vacant spot near Kingston House in Bond Street, Hull city centre |
An electric winch enables Carole's wheelchair to be lifted in and out of her car |
Motorist Carole Sewell relies on a blue badge-only parking space whenever she drives into the city centre.
But she has seen able-bodied drivers taking the spaces, and has suffered verbal abuse when she has asked them if they'd consider parking elsewhere.
"It frustrates me when quite obviously able-bodied people take spaces meant for drivers with impaired mobility," says Carole.
"When I've spoken to drivers about it, I've had to take a verbal backlash and it's very unfair.
"They don't realise how much disabled drivers depend on the spaces, especially if we're driving alone, and have no-one to help us once we're out of our cars and in our wheelchairs or walking with sticks."
Disabled parking bays are positioned in carefully-chosen sites to give disabled people ease of access in the city centre.
There are 13,000 Blue Badge holders in Hull who use 72 blue badge parking spaces.
Enforcement action
Hull City Council has started its first-ever active enforcement of the blue badge scheme in the city to investigate how much fraudulent use is taking place.
Blue badges were developed by the Department for Transport as a national scheme for concessionary on-street parking for motorists assessed as unable to walk, or who suffer severe pain when walking or who have a relevant health problem, such as a heart condition, which limits their ability to walk.
A similar enforcement campaign, by Wandsworth Borough Council, in London last year found that 50 per cent of blue badges checked were used fraudulently: of these, two-thirds were misused by friends and family and the remaining third were stolen or had belonged to people who had died.
Each badge includes photo identification of the person it has been issued to and this person must be using the vehicle when the badge is displayed.
Community enforcement officers (CEOs), formerly known as parking attendants, are asking motorists to verify that they or their passenger is the lawful badge holder, with misuse leading to a parking ticket being issued or confiscation of the badge.
"We are carrying out the enforcement to protect the integrity of the scheme," says George Brentnall, Hull City Council's disability access officer.
"If abuse is happening we will find out and take appropriate action to ensure it stops."
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