At long last the number of successful prosecutions for Blue Badge fraud is going up from 330 in 2010 to 686 last year.  But, considering the huge amount of Blue Badge fraud, this is still a tiny number of prosecutions.

The Act I piloted through the Lords early last year, although a modest measure, did clarify matters a good deal for local authorities.  It particularly made it absolutely clear that it is an offence to use a badge which should have been returned, or one which has been cancelled.  The Act also clarifies that local authorities now have the power to cancel lost or stolen badges so that anyone using such a badge can potentially be caught.

You’d be amazed at what people say when challenged.  “Do you have a disability?” I asked a young woman once.  “No”, she said,”but my mother has.”  Mother was nowhere to be seen.   What about families who take a disabled relative with them to go shopping, leaving them in the car in a ‘Blue Badge’ space?  This is certainly not breaking the law but is not really in the spirit of leaving a valuable space to enable a disabled person to get themselves to the shops.

Will there be a far greater number of prosecutions for Blue Badge fraud in the future so that genuine holders can find somewhere to park?  I do hope so, but I fear that such is the squeeze on local authority budgets, a real crackdown is probably a pipe dream.