Stop using disabled parking bays – a quick ‘two minutes’ is no excuse

One year ago today, the Elizabeth line was fully operational for the first time – four years behind schedule and, after £18.9bn spent, several billion over budget. And it’s been nothing but trouble ever since.

Regular users are now accustomed to the daily delays and massive overcrowding on a line that was supposed to ease the strain on the London Underground, not add to it. Its giant, nine-carriage trains were designed to each carry 1,500 passengers, but are now routinely over-capacity, to the point you have to push your way on in rush hour.

To add to the misery, it has been revealed that one in every 10 trains on the Elizabeth line is cancelled, a situation compounded by regular track faults and signal failures. This summer, operations even had to be suspended after a report of a “swan on the line”. It is officially the worst-performing train service in Britain.

But now, there’s another badge of dishonour to add to the roll call.

Disabled passengers who live along the line’s 73-mile length – which connects commuter-belt towns like Reading, Maidenhead and Slough in the west, and Shenfield in deepest Essex, to central London – have told The Independent how station parking earmarked for blue badge holders is being routinely occupied by ordinary vehicles.

During the evening rush especially, these “prime” spots become unofficial waiting bays for drivers picking up passengers who are often stuck on delayed trains. As the line runs to Heathrow airport, rather than book an expensive taxi all the way, it makes sense to hop on the Elizabeth line and arrange to be picked up from your nearest station.

But I’ve also had anecdotal reports that the disabled bays outside certain Elizabeth line stations, where parking enforcement by the local authority is non-existent, are being used as a general park and ride.

Take Maryland, a small Elizabeth line station in east London that, by car, is in easy reach of Essex towns. One concerned resident told me how its disabled parking spots are routinely taken up by ordinary drivers. “We have two bays designated for disabled parking outside the station, but they’re almost never free for blue-badged drivers. Every night, someone’s in them, sat in their car with their motor idling, playing on their phone, as they wait for the passenger they’re driving home.

“Local businesses use the bays like private parking spots, because no one ever issues penalties around here. It’s so comical – there’s even a dedicated Twitter account with cars parked in the disabled spots – but we can’t get Newham Council to show any interest.”

However, such routine misuse of disabled parking bays outside Elizabeth line stations has shone a light on growing systemic pressures within the blue badge scheme – not least that the amount of parking allocated to disabled drivers across the country has quietly been shrinking.

The Equality Act recommends that five per cent of all parking spaces are marked for disabled use. That’s a slice of the estimated 11 million street parking spaces, and the 20,000 or so spaces in multi-storey car parks and the like, around the country.

However, following the rollout of low-traffic neighbourhoods in our major towns and cities – which restrict access to motorised traffic to encourage more active travel, such as walking and cycling, for those who can – there has been a knock-on effect for disabled drivers looking for convenient places to park.

Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK, said: “As our streets become car free, blue badge spaces have diminished. The increase in pavement dining, which first became popular during the pandemic, has had an effect, too.

“Planning decisions being made on the streetscape are completely ignoring the interests of disabled citizens,” she said.

Almost as remarkable is that, according to The Independent’s enquiries, no one body has oversight of blue badge bays – and no authority is required to keep statistics on their number. Similarly, there is no official body to monitor whether the recommendations of the Equality Act are even being followed concerning disabled parking bays.

“We are not against change, and lower traffic will help many of us stay healthier,” said Hadi, “but we must have equal access to shops, transport hubs and services. Whether we need clearer pavements, blue badge parking or cycle lanes, we are finding ourselves being left out of the conversation.”

Yet, Hadi concurs that hard data is desperately hard to find – and no one is keeping a tab on the numbers.

When The Independent approached the Department for Transport, a spokesperson said: “As local authorities are responsible for administration and enforcement of blue badge spaces in their area, and more broadly have responsibility for parking and traffic, they would be best to approach on this query.”

The local government association does not keep statistics on disabled parking, either.

Katie Pennick, campaigns and policy manager at Transport for All, said that it falls to local authorities to determine how many disabled parking spaces are provided for those with blue badges – and these can either be statutory (enforceable) or merely advisory (non-enforceable). The organisation is not aware of any public data on the numbers nationwide.

“Throughout our work campaigning for accessible transport, we are often asked by decision makers to demonstrate the need for accessibility by providing data – for example, how many disabled people experience a particular issue,” Pennick said.

“This is the wrong way round. The burden should not be on disabled people to justify access. Instead, those who have the power to improve access should be transparent and publish metrics on current levels of accessibility to which they can be held accountable.”

Pennick added: “Many disabled people are reliant upon the car as the only means to get around where other modes of transport are inaccessible. Any reductions to the number of available blue badge parking spaces will have a negative impact on our already limited options. It is deeply concerning that data on total available spaces is not proactively published – or even monitored.”

The fraudulent use of blue badges – and the hogging of disabled bays by unthinking drivers waiting for train commuters – further cuts down the number of available spaces.

Prosecutions for such behaviour are rare. For the year ending March 2021, councils in England took legal action against just 698 people for abuse of the blue badge system.

One in six of all those prosecutions was in one London authority, Lambeth, which has had a dedicated investigation team to combat blue badge fraud for 15 years.

Rezina Chowdhury, cabinet member for Sustainable Lambeth and clean air, said: “Lambeth was the first London borough to really address the issue of blue badge fraud. Since 2008, we have prosecuted hundreds for misusing blue badges, as well as other serious offences such as driving without insurance.

“We have acted because parking fraud and the abuse of parking services costs local authorities significant amounts of money to deal with every year – funding that could be better spent on providing essential services to our residents.”

The Independent understands that some 80 per cent of the penalty charge notices in Lambeth are issued for blue Badge-related misuse – allowing unauthorised drivers to use the badge – while the remaining 20 per cent relate to misusing designated blue badge bays.

Chowdury said Lambeth’s work in this area, the conducting of spot checks and enforcement, “protects parking income [for all residents, as well as] the parking needs of our disabled motorists”. She insists that the borough’s low-traffic neighbourhoods “were widely consulted on, including with disability groups”.

“Following feedback, we introduced exemptions for blue badge holders. We have also ensured that LTN design did not impact essential travel by avoiding using bollards and gates to block streets, and instead using cameras.”

But this best practice is not always followed. When York city centre was closed off to blue badge holders, by a previous Liberal Democrat-Green administration, it became such a cause that Judi Dench called for a rethink.

It’s heartening to realise that people do care about the plight of disabled drivers. But the fact our authorities don’t know how many blue badge spaces they actually have – and that they mostly fail to reprimand motorists who misuse them – should be a scandal at least as remarkable as delays on the Elizabeth line.

Blue Badge-holders, have you experienced difficulties finding a designated parking bay? Please share your stories in the comments box below, or email James Moore at james.moore@independent.co.uk (@jimmoorejourno)