Disabled badge postcode lottery 

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Disabled drivers who want a blue badge for parking face a "postcode lottery," MPs have warned.

A disabled person's chances of obtaining a badge often depended on where they lived, the Commons Transport Committee said.

It said there must be more consistency in how councils applied the government's operating guidelines for the scheme in England.

It also called for a review of the system's eligibility criteria.

The committee said the scheme should take in a wider range of people with mobility difficulties.

It said: "This is a fundamental matter of fairness: a person's entitlement to a blue badge should not depend on where he or she lives."

Committee chairman Louise Ellman added: "The parking needs of people with disabilities must not be decided by what is effectively a postcode lottery.

"There must be greater consistency in the way in which the eligibility criteria for blue badges are applied across the country."

There should also be new powers to tackle motorists who use blue badges fraudulently and a publicity campaign to shame able-bodied drivers out of using disabled parking bays, it said.

BBC website June 2008