Crackdown on disabled badge parking cheats

10:08am Saturday 30th September 2006

MOTORISTS who cheat the parking system by posing as disabled drivers are being targeted by new laws.

New powers mean that parking attendants in Bolton will be able to ask to examine blue badges.

The move will make it easier for attendants to identify fake or stolen badges used by people to park for free in areas restricted for disabled people.

Parking bosses say that genuine badge holders have nothing to fear from the checks but that anyone refusing to allow their badges to be checked without a legitimate reason could be fined.

Any drivers found in possession of a fraudulent badge will be fined and reported to the police.

Ian Kavanagh, director of on-street parking for NCP - the company which polices parking issues on behalf of Bolton Council - said: "There are few motorists who have any sympathy with able-bodied drivers who decide to try to cheat disabled drivers of the spaces provided for them."

"The aim of this new approach is to check blue badges when we see them being used and to scare off or catch the people who are using them illegally."

Disability campaigner, Brenda Trigance-Clark, who founded the Bolton Access Group in 1981, said: "This is something we have been campaigning for and we are delighted that parking attendants will now be able to act proactively against blue badge cheats.

"Previously they have had to examine the badges through a windscreen and have not been able to insist on a physical examination. That has made life much easier for the cheats.

"There is nothing which enrages a disabled driver more than the sight of an able bodied motorist bounding athletically from their car, which is displaying a blue badge and parking in a disabled space.

"It really is one of the most mean- spirited ways imaginable to cheat the parking rules."

A joint statement from Bolton Council's executive member for human resources and diversity, Cllr Frank White, and his environmental services counterpart, Cllr John Byrne, said: "We ask that genuine badge holders co-operate with us, as only by cracking down on this type of offence can we ensure they continue to benefit from the increased number of specially designed disabled parking bays provided in our car parks."