Blue badge cost set to rise

BLUE badge holders will have to pay more for their badge as new measures are brought in to crackdown on fraud.

Currently people pay £2 for a blue badge but Solihull Council plans to raise the price to £10 to help fund administration costs.

The new badges are being introduced to help prevent fraud and misuse and they will include a digital photo and hologram to make it easier to check the right person is using it.

Although the council will still consider applications the badges will be provided by an outside organisation which will send them to the recipient after approval is given by the council.

In a year the council issues around 4,500 badges and deals with 6,000 applications and in 2010/11 this cost around £31,000.

The council said increasing the fee to £10 will mean the new process will cost £15,000 but if it remained at £2 they would have to fork out £52,000.

Under the new scheme the council will be charged £4.60 for each badge but in a report to be considered at a meeting on January 9 it is recommended an extra 25 pence will be paid per badge for a wallet which will enable all documentation to be kept together securely.

Coun Bob Sleigh, the council's spokesman for health and wellbeing, said: "We know that the current blue badge system is unfortunately abused by some people and this new system will make it far more difficult to forge and copy badges.

"It also gives the customer more choice – people can apply online or in person and the reminders will make sure that no-one's badge should be out of date."

In addition a new national database will provide instant up to date details on badge holders and information on whether their badge is still valid.

People can apply for a blue badge online at www.direct.gov.uk, by post or by taking their form to a Solihull Connect office.