Plaid Cymru’s South Wales East AM Lindsay Whittle has urged Transport Minister Edwina Hart to help disabled motorists who currently pay to use many council-owned car park sites in Wales.
Caerphilly County Borough Council is one of seven local authorities in Wales to charge Blue Badge-holders to use its car parks, although it has said it is reviewing the policy.
Mr Whittle, a former leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council and Plaid’s equalities spokesperson, said: “There is no uniform policy across Wales on disabled motorists which means in some areas they are able to park free and in neighbour authorities charges are made.
“Many disabled people are already struggling financially and have been hard hit by the welfare reform policies of the UK government. I would have hoped the Minister would have at least pledged to help disabled motorists rather than as it appears being batted off into some time in the future,” added the South Wales East AM.
He said that the issue highlighted the need for the Welsh Government to establish a Commissioner for the Disabled to look after their interests.
Transport Minister Edwina Hart said: “The aim of the Blue Badge scheme is to enable badge holders to access services and facilities. It was not intended to provide free parking. However, I am aware of the financial difficulties faced by many Blue Badge holders and in response to this Blue Badges are provided for no charge in Wales.
“I have instructed my official to review implementation of the Blue Badge scheme as a whole and to make recommendations on how it could be improved.”
It is not just disabled people who are "struggling financially", many abled bodied people are also struggling. Disabled people want to be treated the same as abled bodied people and so they should be, therefore surely if the car park is a payable car park everybody should pay. I say this as I have a family member who is a blue badge holder and they don't mind paying the car park fees the same as everybody else. I do believe though that car park fees should be looked at in general as some fees are expensive and put people off going to certain places.
Didn't Caerphilly Council charge for disabled parking when Lindsay Whittle was leader. Or has disabled car park charging in Caerphilly only recently been introduced? I would be interested to know if anybody can tell me.
In the words of `Jim Royal` (T.V`s The Royal Family)CORRECT!!! Tony
Caerphilly cbc has no provision for disabled parking their cars at all. The only free spaces in blackwood are on a very steep hill by the burnt down poundstretcher. Totally unacceptable and inappropriate for people who struggle with mobility, etc.