Double blow for disabled drivers as new fees planned
council accused of penny-pinching over blue badge charges and levy for car park
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Highland Council was accused last night of imposing a “penny-pinching” tax on hundreds of disabled drivers across the north.
Disabled motorists will have to pay £20 for a new blue badge or renewal from April 1.
The fee has been introduced as part of the authority’s cost-cutting measures to save £60million over the next three years.
The levy will come into force on the same day that disabled motorists will have to pay to use the largest car park in Inverness for the first time.
The double blow came after drivers claimed there was a lack of bays for the disabled in the centre of Inverness.
David McGrath, 62, of Galloway Drive, Culloden, said: “The disabled are being persecuted to save the council money.”
Mr McGrath, who was disabled after sustaining multiple injuries in a collision on the A9 Inverness-Perth road at Tomatin in 2002, claimed parking bays for the disabled had not been reinstated in the city centre following the culmination of the £6.5million streetscape project.
He said a number of bays had either been removed or replaced by loading areas for delivery lorries.
Another disabled driver, David Robertson, 54, of Blackthorn Road, Culloden, accused the council of “penny-pinching” by charging for blue badges.
He said: “Savings should be across the board, not just targeted at certain groups. Disabled people pay council tax too.”
Mr Robertson, who has a chronic knee problem, said the lack of city-centre parking for the disabled would lead to more people shopping at retail parks on the outskirts of Inverness, where parking is free.
A mother of two disabled sons, Jeanette Allen, 31, of Moy Mains Farm, on the Moy Estate, near Inverness, said she could understand the logic of the charge, providing the money was reinvested in services for people with disabilities.
She said: “It might be a lot of money, but if it was put into areas that help disabled people, then I would accept it.”
Describing existing city-centre parking facilities as “lousy”, Mrs Allen, a mother of eight, added: “We can never shop as a family because my husband or I have to wait with our minibus in a loading bay because there is nowhere else to park.”
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey MP Danny Alexander said: “Charging for blue badges is not unusual in other parts of the country and, given the financial pressures on the council, people will understand the reasons behind this move.
“But it is important for the council to be sure the poorest disabled people will not be dissuaded from getting a blue badge, which after all is a very important part of their rights.”
A council spokeswoman said members of the Inverness city committee had agreed to introduce a pay-on-exit system at the multi-storey car park that would also apply to disabled and blue-badge holders – a common practice in pay-on-exit car parks throughout Scotland.
She said: “Disabled bays will still be provided and located close to the exit on the lower floors of the car park to provide convenient access for blue-badge holders.
“Designated disabled bays outwith the multi-storey car park and both on-street and off-street pay-and-display bays will remain free of charge to blue-badge holders.”
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