Politicians last night passed legislation that will penalise anyone wrongly using a disabled parking bay. Stewart Stevenson backed the plan by Labour MSP Jackie Baillie as the process brought a rare degree of cross-party support at Holyrood.
Politicians last night passed legislation that will penalise anyone wrongly using a disabled parking bay.
SNP transport minister Stewart Stevenson backed the plan by Labour MSP Jackie Baillie as the process brought a rare degree of cross-party support at Holyrood.
Mr Stevenson said the proposal was "an important and much-needed piece of legislation" and the "only real deterrent" to prevent disabled parking spaces being misused was to make them legally enforceable.
About 85% of disabled parking bays are advisory, meaning anyone can park in them without the risk of being penalised.
The proposals put forward by Ms Baillie in her member's bill makes disabled parking bays under local council control legally enforceable and introduces a fine of £30 for those who abuse them, with this increasing to £60 if not paid within 14 days.
With an estimated 15,000 disabled parking bays across the country, the cost of implementing the bill has been put at between £3m and £6m.
The Scottish Government took the issue "extremely seriously", Mr Stevenson told MSPs.
"We share Ms Baillie's commitment to helping disabled people throughout Scotland to have access to parking, which should in turn improve the quality of their life.
"This bill will hopefully bring to an end the abuse of disabled parking spaces and bring about a position where it will be seen by the general public as being socially unacceptable to misuse these spaces."
However, while change will come, it will not happen overnight, he said, as "there is quite a lot of work required by local authorities to implement this bill".
Mr Stevenson said yesterday's debate would "raise awareness of the abuse of disabled parking places and may help to deter some of these thoughtless drivers who exploit the current lack of enforcement".
The minister also said he is "confident" savings can be made from the cost of implementing the bill, through "carefully planning the one-off national implementation programme".
Ms Baillie's Disabled Persons' Parking Places (Scotland) Bill will also require councils to contact the owners and operators of private car parks, including supermarkets and shopping centres, to come to an agreement to make disabled parking places in their car parks enforceable.
Her Labour colleague Karen Gillon told MSPs there are more than 230,000 disabled Blue Badge holders in Scotland.
Ms Gillon was standing in for Ms Baillie, who was absent from the Scottish Parliament for family reasons.
Ms Gillon said the abuse of disabled parking places is "top of the list of what disabled people consider as being barriers to their getting out and living a life".
She added: "This small member's bill can and will have a profound effect on people's lives.
"Action is now needed - the age of just relying on politeness has ended and the age of enforcement has come."
Conservative MSP David McLetchie said it was a poor reflection on society that laws were needed to enforce rules on disabled parking.
"Common courtesy and good manners should apply so that we treat people with disabilities with respect and consideration and that parking spaces designated for their exclusive use are not abused by the rest of us," he said.
