Disabled parking permit

A disabled parking permit, also known as a disabled badge, disabled placard, handicapped permit, handicapped placard, handicapped tag, and "Blue Badge" in the European Union, is displayed upon parking a vehicle permitting the operator of a vehicle to special privileges regarding the parking of that vehicle. These privileges include parking in a space reserved for persons with disabilities, or in some situations, permission to park in a time-limited space for longer time, or to park at a meter without payment.

In the European Union (EU), a disabled parking permit allows partial or total exemption from charges or penalties associated with the parking of a motor vehicle used by a badge-holder, and shows entitlement to use of dedicated parking bays and off-street parking (where they are provided). The concession extends in some places to partial or total exemption from tolls or general prohibitions on where a vehicle can be driven. Since 2000, all general disabled parking permits in the EU have been standardised to a common style and blue colour, leading to the officially-used designation "Blue Badge". A Blue Badge issued in one country of the EU is generally given equal recognition in others with various exceptions as described for the countries below.

The privileges vary by area, but some include parking in no parking zones, extended time limit on time-limited parking areas, waived parking fees, and using pedestrian areas in urgent situations.

In the United Kingdom (UK), this scheme of permits was originally introduced (using Orange Badges) by the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970. Badges are issued as a right if a person meets certain statutory requirements, most of which are associated with actually being in receipt of certain disability benefits from the national Social Security system; additionally, a local authority can make concessionary issues of badges to persons who have a permanent disability which does not fall directly within the more rigid statutory requirements but which seriously impairs their mobility.

The Great Britain (GB) Blue Badge scheme does not apply to parking away from public roads and local authority car parks, with the general concessions often not recognised at ports, airports and railway stations unless the operators have provided voluntary parking privileges.

Until 2010 Directgov provided a service that covers country wide customised maps for Blue Badge Holders with different base colours reflecting councils policies on Blue Badge Holder's parking. In addition to council policies this service also pin pointed the location of different features specific to disabled community. There are a few dedicated Blue Badge sat-navs available, mainly from the specialist sat-nav company Navevo. See BBNav publicity for a likely list of integral features.

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Wikipedia