why are we having to pay for the bluebadge

pauletruth

ive renewed it twice now and its always been free now im being charged 13.50. seems a lot for a bit of card.

clarryd

The charge is because it is a new tamper proof card. (Well so they say) and people who have fake cards would not pay and can not pay as there is nothing wrong with them, to get a new one and in time all the fake cards will be gone.

That is the reason whether it works or not is to be seen.

tomtontom

Seems a bargain for the benefit it gives.

clarryd

tomtontom wrote: »

Seems a bargain for the benefit it gives.

I agree.

I have one and it is a god send to me.

I don't mind paying the money as it has many benefits.

sheeps68

Am surprised it was free for you before. I've always had to pay!

Richie-from-the-Boro

pauletruth wrote: »

ive renewed it twice now and its always been free now im being charged 13.50. seems a lot for a bit of card.

Potentially it saves you the individual up to about £4.5 thousand a year, and costs local authorities mi££ions a year in lost pay and display revenue. My advice would be don't [re] apply for a blue badge in the first place and save yourself the £13.50. Send it back and demand a refund, how dare they charge you when the rest of the 2.58 million individuals [4.8% of the English population] has to pay for theirs, shame on the nasty local authority.
_______________

2013 figures 40% of badges were - without further assessment, 59% subject to further assessment and 1% were issued to organisations. Thank god for the increase from £2 to £10 per badge to pay for the Blue Badge Improvement Scheme [BBIS] online database.

sheep-ali

I am on my second one and have been charged £20 each time.

TOBRUK

I have just renewed my blue badge and it was free!

Before this I was living in a different authority who always charged £2 - £3, which was for 'admin' etc. Since then I moved to live in a different county who I have just discovered do not charge, to my surprise!

It depends on your local authority, and as they are all trying to save money aswell as cuts etc. I suppose some are finding ways to make money (and get away with it) where they can!

Big_Tree

Don't pay it then.

Morglin

Blue badge fees went up, to allow councils to spend more on enforcing bays, catching and fining those without badges, parking in them, and combating fraud.

We pay £10 each here, which is more than worth it.

Lin

tomtom256

People always want something for nothing.

It's costs to produce and issue them, why should everyone else foot the bill.

I paid £3 for mine last renewal would happily pay more for the savings it brings. Sorry actually it's the admin cost that I paid for not the BlueBadge!