- Investment to improve Barnes’ shopping scene
- One way cycling reminder
- Keeping our borough safe during the Olympics
- New powers sought to control mooring
- Dignity Action Day 2012
- Good Wood makes great art
- Would you like to run your local library?
- Improving graves at East Sheen cemetery
- Council agrees Capital Funding programme
- Outer London Funding – work still continue
- Tea and Tango in Twickenham
- Dance fever set to hit the borough
- Final reminder to reclaim wrongly issued PCNs
- Get ready to (street) party for Queen’s jubilee
- Schools grant greeted with delight by Council
- All aboard for Richmond station improvements
- Council to spend £10.4m to expand four primaries
- Uplift spotlight turns to Hampton North
- Green Flag Award hope for Crane Park
- Youth events to discuss Twickenham Youth provision
- Parents to have their say about Catholic Secondary School
- Bills cut by £80,000 in Low Carbon Zone
- Mouse droppings lead to £10k fine for baker
- Gritters ready for winter issued
- Royal Connections project call for volunteers
- New guide an essential tool to support local shops
- Green fingered grant for local charity
- Keeping Richmond warm this winter
- Mayor to celebrate Scots’ history
- Last chance to see Art in Motion exhibition at Twickenham Gallery
- Chance to get arty in Mortlake
- Call for local artists to open studios
- Did you resolve to get fit for 2012?
- Tangley is home to new family centre
- Young people asked about the future of Twickenham youth provision
- Latest move on Clifden School site
- Saved Windham Croft Centre 'back in business'
- Cracking down on Blue Badge fraud
- New Cabinet member announced
- Recycle Christmas trees
Release Date: 05/01/2012
Cracking down on Blue Badge fraud
Fraudsters thinking of using a disabled persons Blue Badge to claim free parking they are not entitled to have been warned that detection tactics have been improved. Illegal users are now much more likely to face a fine or prosecution.
Richmond Council has joined the Blue Badge Improvement Service, which runs a nationwide database of every badge issued and the registered holder. The database will make it much easier for parking wardens to check badges, wherever in the UK they are being used or were issued.
Cllr Nicola Urquhart, Richmond Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Services, Health and Housing, said: “Blue Badges make life that bit easier for people who rely on a car to get out but who need to park close to where they are going. We have had situations when badges have been abused and used by people who are perfectly able-bodied. We are now using technology to take action and crack down on those unscrupulous individuals.
“Stealing or forging a blue badge, or not handing in one you find, only deprives people whose lives are already hard enough, and it’s an offence to use a badge not issued to you. Now we have joined the improvement service, our Community Enforcement Officers will be able to check badges against the database and if they are invalid or not being used by the badge holder, it will be much easier for the fraudster to be caught out, fined or prosecuted. We do take action against individuals who break the rules.”
A new design of Blue Badge was launched on 1 January 2012, to combat fraudulent use. The PVC badge includes several new security features including complex print patterns, a digital photograph and a barcode.
Further details on how to apply for a blue badge are available online at www.richmond.gov.uk/applying_for_a_blue_badge
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