Blue Badge Misuseappendix 1

Blue Badge MisuseAppendix 1

Background.

The administration and issuing of blue badges is a separate department to the enforcement of blue badge misuse and comes under ‘Adults and Communities’. The enforcement of blue badge misuse falls to Parking Enforcement.

In the City of Birmingham area there are in excess of 45,000 valid blue badges in circulation, this number is anticipated to increase as the new regulations allowing temporary disabilities and other disabilities are included.

Misuse of blue badges is an offence that is not readily noticeable until an authority goes looking for it. Following complaints from various disability groups and the visible increase in vehicle displaying disabled badges in prime parking areas in the City Centre it was apparent that blue badge misuse could be a problem. In some areas of the City around the commercial centres in excess of 50% of all on street parking was occupied throughout the day by vehicle displaying blue badges.

In 2006 a police officer was seconded for 6 months to Parking Enforcement specifically with the brief to focus on blue badge misuse. In 5 months almost 100 drivers were prosecuted for blue badge misuse.

Current Structure.

Birmingham City adopted Civil Parking Enforcement, which included a vehicle removal operation in 2001. The current enforcement contractors are NSL Services Ltd and the removal contractor is Mansfield’s Recovery. The contractors are monitored by a small team of 1 Manager, 2 supervisors and 7 Monitors.

Whilst having a police officer seconded to the unit was effective as they could seize blue badges, demand names and addresses from the drivers and have specialist knowledge in PACE and file preparation the cost was prohibitive for the pilot to continue.

In 2007 the remit of the team was expanded to include Blue badge enforcement and untaxed vehicles. Following talks with the City Councils legal department they agreed to taking on private prosecutions for blue badge misuse under the Road Traffic Regulation Act and Forgery Act.

All files are prepared by the Parking Enforcement team and forwarded to legal services for summonses to be issued. Blue badge enforcement now accounts for approximately 60% of the unit’s time.

Problems Encountered

Blue badge enforcement is politically a sensitive issue and there is a very real potential to attract bad publicity when mistakes are made. Some of the main issues that had to be addressed prior to starting enforcement were:-

Political Support – Changing the perception that we were not looking at prosecuting disabled people but were focusing on able bodied people who were misusing blue badges that had been issued to able bodied people.
That there was a real problem that needed to be addressed – letters from disabled groups and the general public were presented supporting enforcement, the evidence from the pilot identified the scale of the problem. The financial cost to the City was presented i.e. one office worker was saving between £4 - £5k per year in parking charges.
Obtaining staff support for their new role. Whilst some staff was enthusiastic to take on the new role others were not supportive.
Lack of powers to obtain name address and Date of Birth. – Misuse is committed by the driver staff can ask them for their name address and date of birth but they are not obliged to give it.
Lack of knowledge of PACE – all interviews and questioning need to be PACE trained. Training by an outside provider has now been put into place.
Lack of Equipment – Photographs or Video needs to be obtained for the driver to support evidence provided by CEO’s and Council Monitors. Tape machines and transcript machines need to be obtained for all interviews.

Enforcement Procedures.

Information on suspected misuse is received from various sources, members of the public, Civil Enforcement Officers, Police, Social Services or observations from Council Monitors.
Enquiries are made to ascertain from the appropriate local authority to establish:-
Name of the blue badge holder
Date of Birth of the badge Holder
Address of the badge holder
Description of the badge holder
Date of issue of blue badge and date valid from and too,
Any information of disability
Registration number of any vehicle declared by the badge holder
Enquiries made on Notice Processing system to establish if any penalties have been issued to vehicles owned by the badge holder, or person suspected of misusing. Also establish what vehicles may be registered to the householder
Circulate information to CEO’s to try to establish if the vehicle is being regularly parked in any area, with the badge displayed.
Try to obtain photographs of the person parking the vehicle on at least one occasion. If unable to obtain photographs then full description of the driver. and any passengers.
On seeing the vehicle being parked up by suspected misuse on second occasion then the vehicle is issued with a PCN after the appropriate waiting / observation time has elapsed.
Once the vehicle has been issued with PCN vehicle is removed again after appropriate waiting period elapsed. Removal carried out under Traffic Management Act 2004.
Vehicle only released when the driver produces proof of address and photo ID, also a short pro forma which requires date of birth and the driver to sign stating that they parked the vehicle there. Vehicle then released on payment of £105 removal fee and PCN charge.
Drive is videoed when collecting vehicle from recovery operator, this should then corroborate the photos taken by the monitor when the vehicle was parked.
After two weeks, which is the appeal time for removals, which gives the driver time to write in with their story the driver will be invited in for a taped interview under caution.
File submitted for legal Services.

Prosecution Criteria

Persons who fulfil any of the following criteria will go to court:-

Evidence of persistent misuse more than one occasion
Evidence of previous PCN’s being cancelled following production of blue badge.
Do not admit the offence during interview.
Using a blue badge issued to deceased person.

The following may be eligible for a caution letter although the removal fee and PCN would not be cancelled or refunded:-

No evidence of previous misuse.
Full admission and remorse shown during interview.
Genuine mistake in the use of the blue badge.

Common Defences.

I dropped the badge holder outside the shops and went to park the car.
Some ways to disprove this:-
Follow the driver for a short time to see if they meet up with the badge holder.
Phone the badge holder at home.
Evidence that this is a regular practices not a one off.
I was going to pick the badge holder up.
Some ways to disprove this:-
Phone the badge holder at home
Vehicle is not removed until after 1 hour, this is accepted as being more than enough time to collect someone.
Evidence that they returned on their own (Photograph
Someone else put the badge in the window.
Some ways to disprove this
Observations and photographs that there was nobody else in the vehicle
That the vehicle has been parked on a regular basis.

Some Statistics to Date:

Since April 2009:-

In excess of 550 misuse offences have been identified
Summonses to attend magistrates Court have been issued in 96 cases
No complaints have been received.
Parking by vehicles displaying blue badges has decreased in some areas by over 50%
Considerable numbe rof letters in support of the action have been received

Gary Bullock