Council to crack down on the selfish parkers

Nov 26 2008 by Louise Reilly, East Kilbride News

DRIVERS who park in disabled spaces in town centre car parks, even though they are not entitled to a Blue Badge, are to be targeted.

The move comes as the campaign urging motorists across South Lanarkshire to Be Fair, and leave disabled bays for Blue Badge-holders is continuing to gather pace.

The council's parking unit is set to focus on disabled bays between Monday, December 1, and Friday, December 12, when parking attendants will target all regulated disabled persons’ parking places in South Lanarkshire.

Police will join attendants to target the Cornwall Street and Andrew Street car parks in the town on Tuesday, December 2, and Thursday, December 11, between 8.30am and 11am.

Backed by South Lanarkshire Council and the Disabled Access Panel, the campaign has been arranged as new legislation is working its way through the Scottish Parliament.

When the new law is passed, councils will be required to regulate all on-street disabled bays and encourage private owners such as supermarkets to make their spaces for disabled enforceable by law.

The council’s parking unit manager, Donald Gibson, said: "We try to balance the needs of all sections of the community when it comes to regulating road spaces, such as creating facilities for buses, taxis, loading/unloading as well as blue badge spaces.

“It is very important that able-bodied persons respect the facilities put in place for Blue Badge-holders, as this is often the only place that they can park to access the facilities that most of us take for granted.

“The council's enforcement team will issue a fine to any vehicle parked in a disabled person's parking space without a valid Blue Badge visible from the outside of the vehicle."

At present in South Lanarkshire, all spaces displaying the official Blue Badge sign are currently regulated - and anyone using them without a genuine badge can be issued a fixed penalty ticket by a parking attendant.

However, there are many spaces, for example disabled bays outside people's homes and those in private car parks, that depend on goodwill. Abuse of these spaces has led to calls from disabled people across the country for more regulation.

As well as billboards, bus and newspaper advertising, South Lanarkshire Council has planned awareness raising sessions for town centres across the area where people can obtain more information on Blue Badges, disabled bays and the regulations that are currently in place.