Blue badge database for London
By Paul Carter
A blue badge database is to be introduced across London following a successful pilot in which more than 90 fraudulent badges were seized.
The scheme, which operated in five London boroughs between April 2008 and January 2009, involved pooling information about 12,000 blue badges which had been reported lost or stolen in one central database.
Previously, each local authority was responsible for its own data, meaning that police and parking attendants had to check with each specific borough to determine whether a badge was being used fraudulently.
The database will now be extended across the capital at a monthly cost of £1,978, which will be divided between the boroughs, Transport for London, and the police.
London Councils, the body representing local authorities in the capital, will collect information about lost or stolen
Cllr Mike Fisher, chairman of London Councils’ Transport and Environment Committee, said that disabled people should be able to park close to their destination without worrying about their cars being broken into and their blue badges stolen.
He said: “The success of the pilot scheme sends a clear message to blue badge fraudsters that the authorities have joined forces to make sure they will not get away with it.”
Helen Smith, director of policy and campaigns at disabled motoring charity Mobilise said: "I'm glad to hear that the London councils have expanded the Blue Badge database to cover the whole of the capital. I have no doubt that this will help tackle badge abuse.
“However, I am concerned that an unfortunate consequence of this maybe that incidences of theft increase in places just outside London like Luton and Reading. The way to avoid this is for the DfT to launch the UK wide database scheme as soon as possible.
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