Disabled drivers left without blue badges because council staff opt to work from home
A view of a sign for disabled badge holders and for pay at machine instructions in a car park at Skegness in Lincolnshire
PA
Disabled drivers have been left without blue badges because council staff have opted to work from home.
Residents in East Sussex, Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole, Sheffield and Tower Hamlets council areas have reported waiting for up to three months for parking permits.
Many local authorities have decided to retain pandemic-era working arrangements.
The arrangements have enabled 95 per cent of councils to favour powers to bring back virtual and hybrid meetings, the Local Government Association has said.
City of Westminster disabled parking signage in Carlisle Place, Victoria, London
PA
East Sussex resident Laurie Kuhrt, 81, applied for his blue badge in early May.
The Telegraph has claimed he is still waiting for his application to reach its completion.
Kuhrt said: “My wife is increasingly incapacitated with Alzheimer’s disease… She’s not able to walk unaided and the application went on May 12 and on July 31 I got the first response from them.”
The pensioner was told one of the documents he supplied was incorrect and others needed to be sent via post as opposed to email following a two month delay.
Disabled parking spaces at a Sainsburys store in London
PA
East Sussex County Council denied that remote working was causing delays for blue badges.
The Tory-run authority stressed it was “not a contributing factor” in a statement.
An East Sussex County Council spokesman said: “In line with the rest of the country, East Sussex has seen a large increase in the number of blue badge applications in recent years… There is currently a 12-week time frame for completed applications due to the high volume being received, coupled with delays caused when supporting documents required are not initially supplied.”
However, Sheffield City Council warned “staffing issues” were behind 12 week delays.
The Steel City took 28 days on average to process applications over the last three months.
Parking space for disabled person
PA
But Tower Hamlets Council blamed a “large number of applications being submitted” on the delays.
Andy Martin, an independent member of Liberal Democrat-led Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council, stressed the Dorset authority was working to reduce wait times to eight weeks.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “For some older people, having a blue badge makes all the difference between being able to get out and live a full life, and being stuck at home… That’s why it is so disappointing to hear of such long waits to get a blue badge, especially as older people do not usually have time on their side.
“We know that local authorities are under huge pressure and that the resources given to them by the Government are no match for soaring demands for many of their services, but we hope they will do everything they can to speed up their application processes.
“As things are, we worry that by the time some older people receive their blue badge they will have lost the confidence and capability to make best use of it.”