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DISABLED PARKING

For people with disabilities getting in and out of a parked car and travelling the distance from the car to their destination can be tricky.

To make life a little easier for people with disabilities, the Blue Badge Scheme regulates parking concessions in England.

But as Chris Jackson and Tanni Grey-Thompson discovered, it’s a scheme that’s open to abuse.

Nationwide craze

Able-bodied drivers parking in spaces reserved for people with disabilities is a common conception of misuse.

A Blue Badge displayed in Darlington

Tanni-Grey Thompson has experienced this.

She has had to wait by her car for up to an hour because people without Blue Badges have parked overlapping her wide bay.

This means that she can’t get into the car with her wheelchair.

Tanni says, "I’ve had to give my keys to complete strangers to pull my car out."

Investigation

In just one hour, seven people parked in the bays without displaying Blue Badges.

In this private car park, their only punishment is a polite reminder not to do it again.

But out on public roads, they would be served a £30 fixed penalty fine.

Misuse

Tanni and Chris discovered that it is not only non-badge holders who are misusing the scheme.

Some Blue Badge holders were simply not displaying their badges.

According to statistics from disability organisations, up to 7,000 motorists are wrongly using the badges.

Misuse can also occur in the following ways..

• Permit holders who lend Blue Badges to able-bodied friends or relatives
• Blue Badges not being displayed
• Obtaining a badge by exaggerating illness to a doctor

Medical checks

Dr Rob Dawson

To obtain a Blue Badge, applicants often have to prove to a GP that they have difficulty walking 50 metres.

Dr Rob Dawson says it is difficult to realistically judge this in some cases.

"One can maybe have the wool pulled over your eyes."

Disrepute

They say it is bringing the scheme into disrepute.

After all, it could be argued that if some Blue Badge holders are misusing the scheme, they have weak grounds to complain when non-badge holders misuse the reserved spaces.