There are approximately 100,000 disabled badge holders in Scotland. From personal experience disabled parking bays on private land are being used by non badge holders, as they know these bays are not monitored and therefore they are unlikely to receive a ticket/fine.
In 2008, Jackie Baillie MSP introduced a member’s bill, the Disabled Persons’ Parking Places (Scotland) Bill, which came into force in 2009. This Act puts a duty on local authorities to seek arrangements with private landowners to promote the proper use of disabled parking places, thereby enabling/encouraging local authorities to make agreements with private landowners to patrol disabled parking on their property. In section 6, paragraph 40, of the explanatory notes, it is noted that this legislation gave local authorities 12 months to seek arrangements with private landowners:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2009/3/notes/division/3/6
The problem, therefore, appears to be the enforcement of this piece of legislation. Have (and how many) local authorities sought to make arrangements with private landowners? If they were initially unsuccessful (in the prescribed 12 month period), do they have policies for reviewing this issue at regular intervals in the future?
As it has now been 6 years since this legislation was introduced, is it time for the Scottish Government to review the effectiveness of this legislation and whether any further measures are needed?
Monitoring of these bays on private land in line with disabled parking on public land would ensure there is no discrimination against disabled people visiting supermarkets, cinemas etc. It is therefore important to extend monitoring of bays on private land by traffic wardens (or whoever takes this over) to ensure access for disabled badge holders to essential services.
I would like the Committee to ask the Scottish Government how the role of traffic wardens (or whoever takes this over) could be extended to cover disabled bays on private land.