Double blow for disabled drivers as new
fees planned
council accused of penny-pinching over blue
badge charges and levy for car park
By Jonny Muir
Published:
08/02/2010
ANGER OVER CHARGES: David McGrath, from Inverness,
who is not happy over the proposed introduction of Blue
Badge parking charges. David Whittaker-Smith
Highland Council was accused last night of
imposing a “penny-pinching” tax on hundreds of disabled drivers
across the north.
Disabled motorists will have to pay £20 for a
new blue badge or renewal from April 1.
The fee has been introduced as part of the
authority’s cost-cutting measures to save £60million over the
next three years.
The levy will come into force on the same day
that disabled motorists will have to pay to use the largest car
park in Inverness for the first time.
The double blow came after drivers claimed there
was a lack of bays for the disabled in the centre of Inverness.
David McGrath, 62, of Galloway Drive, Culloden,
said: “The disabled are being persecuted to save the council
money.”
Mr McGrath, who was disabled after sustaining
multiple injuries in a collision on the A9 Inverness-Perth road
at Tomatin in 2002, claimed parking bays for the disabled had
not been reinstated in the city centre following the culmination
of the £6.5million streetscape project.
He said a number of bays had either been removed
or replaced by loading areas for delivery lorries.
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