Blue badge overhaul plan launched

Proposals to overhaul the blue badge parking scheme for disabled drivers have been published by the government. It wants to make it easier to take action against those who have stolen, forged or used the badges fraudulently.

The badge is already being redesigned to show a user's gender and to include a hologram, making it harder to forge. The government also wants to extend the scheme to help a wider range of people. Consultation on the proposals runs until 17 April.

Transport Minister Rosie Winterton said the government was proposing to extend the scheme's "reach" to help more people. This could include more parents who have to transport bulky medical equipment with their children and people with severe autism, she said. "I want to hear people's views about ways of making the badge more secure and better ways of taking immediate action against blue badge cheats who steal, forge or use a badge they are not entitled to."

The government announced a overhaul of the scheme in September 2007.

Anne Begg, the president of the Blue Badge Network, told the BBC, it was important permits were used properly. She said that while traffic wardens and police could now inspect badges, to confiscate one "was quite a bureaucratic process".