Why Cornwall Blue Badge holders keep getting parking tickets

You pull into a bay, display your Blue Badge, walk away, and think nothing more of it. Then you come back to a penalty notice tucked under the wiper. If that has happened to you, you are far from the only one.

Cornwall Council has launched a campaign called ‘Check Your Marks. Get Set. Park’ to help Blue Badge holders feel more confident using their badge and, ideally, stop those tickets landing in the first place.

Nearly one in five have been caught out

In a recent survey run by the Council, almost one in five Blue Badge holders said they had received a parking ticket while parked with their badge over the last three years. More than 1,000 people responded in total.

That is a lot of fines for people who were, in most cases, doing their best to park correctly.

The reasons people got tickets

The Council found the fines came down to a handful of common slip-ups. According to the survey, people reported being ticketed for:

• Forgetting to set their parking clock
• Badges slipping off the dashboard
• Overstaying time limits
• Parking in loading bays or restricted zones

Most of these are small, easily made mistakes. Setting your clock before you leave the car, checking the badge is sitting flat and visible on the dash, and keeping an eye on any time limit will head off the most frequent problems.

Using someone else’s badge

The Council is also reminding people not to use a badge belonging to a friend or family member unless the badge holder is actually in the vehicle at the time.

This part of the message follows a national rise in Blue Badge misuse. That includes fake badges, stolen badges and, in some cases, people continuing to use a badge that belonged to a loved one who has passed away.

Online events you can join

The Council is running online events so Blue Badge holders, along with friends, family members and carers, can learn more about the scheme and ask questions about using their badge.

So far 75 people have attended the webinars, with more sessions planned. [Add booking link / details here once available.]

What the Council says

Councillor Thalia Marrington, cabinet member for Community Safety and Public Protection, thanked the more than 1,000 people who took part in the survey.

“Blue Badges are a real lifeline for thousands of people across Cornwall and we want to make sure all Blue Badge holders feel confident using their badge,” Thalia said.

“We’ve had some really positive feedback from our online events and we hope that this campaign will be useful to Blue Badge holders.”

Throughout the campaign the Council will keep sharing tips on where you can and cannot park with a Blue Badge, and looking at the common reasons people ended up with a ticket.