Blue Badges are not handed back

JUST three people handed blue badges back to Leicestershire County Council during an amnesty designed to stop motorists flouting parking laws.

The authority asked people to post badges that were no longer valid or required back to County Hall.

But over the course of the six-week “no questions asked” amnesty – just three badges were returned – despite a publicity campaign and media coverage.

The authority says the campaign was an opportunity to promote its “zero tolerance” approach to people abusing the scheme.

Misusing a blue badge is a criminal offence and carries a fine of up to £1,000 and prosecution. In some cases the council can take legal action.

Coun Blake Pain, cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “While the majority of people are using blue badges correctly, there’s a small minority that aren’t doing so.

“We get around 50 reports of blue badge misuse a year, however, evidence suggests that there’s more abuse than what is reported to us.

“We ran the blue badge amnesty to not only encourage those with expired badges to hand them in, but to raise awareness about the rules around blue badge use and to remind residents that they can report misuse to us.

“We are committed to tackling this issue so we can free up spaces for genuine blue badge holders, who can sometimes find parking difficult.”

A total of 11,543 blue badges were issued by Leicestershire County Council between April 1, 2017, and March 31, 2018.

A report prepared for councillors on the county council’s corporate governance committee said: “The aim of the amnesty was primarily to promote the council’s zero tolerance approach to blue badge fraud in order to retain public confidence in the blue badge scheme and to make any abuser of the scheme think again.

“Although it is not possible to tangibly quantify the success of such a scheme, anecdotally, it is accepted that proactive counter fraud work such as this can have the effect of changing people’s behaviour towards abuse and misuse.”

Blue Badges are issued to people as an individual, not a vehicle.

The badge can be displayed on any vehicle (including taxis and hired cars) in which the blue badge holder is travelling as either a driver or a passenger.

The scheme only applies to on-street car parking.