Manchester and Bolton will be the joint Centre of Excellence for the North West in recognition of their innovative work in administering and enforcing the Blue Badge Scheme. They will share good practice and drive up improvements in management of the scheme with other local authorities.
For the first time Government is looking to give councils the power to confiscate stolen or forged Blue Badges immediately when they find them. This is to help reduce Blue Badge associated vehicle crime, as well as safeguarding key parking, close to vital services, for those who need it most: 73% of respondents to the recent Blue Badge consultation highlighted this as key way to fight abuse of the scheme.
The biggest review of the Blue Badge, since it was created in 1971, will also enable more people than ever to retain their independence, The strategy commits to extending the scheme to seriously disabled Armed Forces personnel and veterans, people with temporary but serious mobility problems, young children with specific disabilities and individuals with severe mental impairments.
To support immediate confiscation of misused badges a £10m national data sharing system will be established by councils to ensure stolen or forged Badges from outside their local area can be easily identified for the first time.
The Department for Transport is also looking at new technologies to make Badges harder to forge, including barcodes that can be read through windscreens.
A new system of assessing eligibility for the Blue Badge is also being developed, with dedicated independent medical assessors, who will ensure that only those who really need a Badge receive one. This will standardise assessments throughout the country, and lighten the workload of GPs, who currently carry out individual assessments in many areas.
A total of nine councils across the county have been awarded the status 'Centre of Excellence'.
