Blue Badge holders have a little known concession around wheel clamping
Bailiffs can’t clamp your vehicle if it has a valid Blue Badge(Image: GETTY)
Blue Badge holders are exempt from a number of parking rules, but few people realise this can even extend to having their wheel clamped. However, making a mistake in how you display your badge could completely waive the protection.
The Blue Badge scheme operates across the UK, allowing people with disabilities and limited mobility some leniencies when it comes to parking. This includes allowing them to park closer to their destination and in wider parking bays for accessible vehicles that most other motorists usually aren’t allowed to park in.
However, Blue Badges also offer a few other accommodations and concessions that many people don’t know about. One such exemption is that it’s illegal to wheelclamp a vehicle with a Blue Badge for public or ‘on-street’ parking offences, according to the official Gov.uk guidance.
The Blue Badge must be displayed correctly in order to benefit from this protection. This means it must be:
- Displayed on the dashboard
- Clearly legible through the front windscreen
- Front of the badge facing upwards with the hologram showing
Incorrectly displaying a Blue Badge can result in parking fines or penalty charge notices. It’s also an offence to display the badge if the disabled person it belongs to isn’t in the vehicle, with an exception for drivers who have just dropped off or are about to pick up the disabled person.
If you have a Blue Badge displayed correctly and still got clamped, Citizens Advice recommends: “You should complain if the bailiff has clamped your vehicle and you don’t think they’re allowed to.
“It’s best to complain to the creditor – this is the person or company you owe money to. Explain how the bailiff has broken the rules and ask them to tell the bailiff to remove the clamp.
“You should also send a complaint to the bailiff too – this will help you later on if complaining to your creditor doesn’t help. Ask the bailiff to remove the clamp too.”
Blue Badges are not a licence to park anywhere; badge holders need to ensure they are not causing an obstruction, inconvenience or danger to other road users or pedestrians when parking.
This can include parking:
- Too close to school entrances, bus stops, on a bend, or near the brow of a hill or hump bridge
- Opposite or within 10 metres of a junction
- Where it would make the road narrow, such as by a traffic island or roadworks
- Where it would hold up traffic
- Where emergency vehicles stop or go in and out, such as hospital entrances
- Where the kerb has been lowered or the road raised to help wheelchair users
- On a pavement, unless signs permit it
Although wheelclamping may not be an option, there are other consequences that Blue Badge holders may face, such as being prosecuted, having your car towed or removed or even having your Blue Badge withdrawn.