Crackdown on abuse of disabled parking permits

A MAJOR operation has been launched to root out the widespread abuse of disabled parking permits in Cork city.

The crackdown was launched after confirmation that fake Disabled Person’s Parking Cards — known as the “blue badge” — were being sold from certain city pubs.

And a recent spot-check on the city’s main office street, South Mall, revealed that of its 60 parking spaces, 38 were occupied by vehicles displaying a blue badge.

Following the blitz in that area, just eight cars with blue badges were parked there the next day.

Eddie Hawkins, the parking operations manager with the city council’s traffic division, said the crackdown has been launched to ensure genuine blue badge holders can get convenient parking in the city centre.

“I was amazed at the scale of the problem,” he said.

“There are lots of blue badges out there being used by a lot of people who are not entitled to use them.

“A lot of these badges would have been issued to people who were genuinely entitled to them but unfortunately, some permits are being abused.”

He cited one example where five students without apparent disabilities got into a car, which was displaying a blue badge, while it was parked outside the College of Commerce.

Mr Hawkins met yesterday with the Cork Access Group — an umbrella body for disability support groups in the city — to discuss the clampdown and wider parking policy issues affecting drivers with disabilities.

The group, which includes representatives of the Irish Wheelchair Association and the Disabled Drivers Association, is supporting the clampdown.

Traffic wardens have been instructed to conduct spot-checks on parked vehicles displaying blue badges.

Drivers may be asked to produce their permit for inspection to ensure it is an authentic and valid document.

Where concerns arise, they can refer the matter to gardaí for investigation because a person may have avoided a parking charge by fraudulent means.

The entire Disabled Person’s Parking Card scheme is currently the subject of a Governmental review which is expected to recommend an overhaul of the eligibility criteria.

The operation of the scheme in Cork is also under review.

Currently, a blue badge holder can park their vehicle in any parking space in the city — both in a time restricted disc zone or in a designated disabled parking spot — free of charge for the entire day. In Dublin and other Irish cities, blue badge holders can park in disc zones free of charge, but only for the time limit within that disc zone.