Surrey Disability Charity: "If this trend increases, it will lead to isolation"
Surrey Coalition of Disabled People say that Blue Badges are 'vital' to its members
Following a reported rise in Blue Badges being faked, stolen and sold online, a Surrey-based charity has told us about how vital they are for the people that need them.
The Blue Badge scheme gives disabled people access to specially adapted designated bays which are often the only way they can access certain buildings.
Badge holders are allowed to park for free in on-street pay-and-display bays, and for up to three hours on yellow lines.
With parking possibly coming as a premium in some areas, demand for these badges are high, with people forging and stealing them.
These blue badges are being sold for hundreds online, their price is due to their difficulty to clone due to a holographic feature. However they are still falling into the hands of people that don't require them.
Nikki Roberts, who is the chief executive at the Surrey Coalition for Disabled people says that people are now having to lock badges up to prevent theft.
"We have a few members that have actually put locks on their blue badges now. So they would put a lock on their blue badge that you can pop on your steering wheel because there is a risk of it actually being stolen from the car.
I think in particular they hope that that will deter people from obviously stealing the badges. But I know it still does happen and it's a big thing for Surrey people."
Roberts describes Blue Badges as 'vital' for people that need them.
"Blue badges are a vital for our members because it enables them to access things like supermarkets, other shops, medical appointments, it can be dental, GP, whatever it is, it really helps them to have their independence."
Roberts added that accessibility is already a huge challenge for disabled people, and if this trend increases, it will lead to isolation.
"So our members already now would leave maybe an hour before an appointment just to be able to make sure that they could find a space and make sure that they can access whatever it is they're doing
There's that impact and if they continue to not be able to access disabled parking bays, it will put people off from going out and therefore they'll be isolated in their homes."
Nikki says that the only way that this problem can get fixed is with better policing around the issue.
"We need more enforcement of the of people that aren't using the blue badges as they should be. We would like to see councils looking at this across the county."