Blue Badge parking

sir – In the three months since Blue Badge eligibility rules were extended, 12,299 new badges – around 130 a day – were granted to people who cannot walk as part of a journey without “considerable psychological distress” or the risk of “serious harm”.

I live in central London with a severe mobility disability and often cannot park outside my home because the disabled bay is taken by other Blue Badge holders. I have two questions.

Are 130 new bays being created every day to meet the increased demand? If not, it’s obvious that, whatever the merits of the eligibility extension, limited access to disabled parking is only going to get worse.

That must be exactly the opposite of what was intended, so what is the Government proposing to do about it? Lord Shinkwin

London SW1

sir – With the announcement that Blue Badge parking is going to be free at all hospitals, I hope that NHS England will issue an instruction that it is to be free. In the past it has only issued guidance notes to NHS trusts. Local management then decided to ignore the guidance notes – which is why we have different charges at each hospital. David Fordham

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk