Blue Badges and Parking

1. How many designated disabled parking bays are currently available within your council area?

Information on parking bays, including disabled bays is available on the Devon County Council website and can be found here: Parking – Facts and Figures.

2. How many active Blue Badge holders are currently registered within your council area?

50,669

3. How many Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) have been issued for the misuse of disabled parking bays in each of the last 3 calendar years (2022, 2023, 2024)?

4. What is the total revenue generated from fines related to Blue Badge misuse in each of the last 3 calendar years (2022, 2023, 2024)? These offences might include but are not limited to using a fake blue badge, using an out-of-date one etc.

Compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate cost limit under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time. To retrieve this data would require a manual review of every notice issued in each of those years to identify if the issue related to blue badge misuse as this is only identifiable by review of case notes. A manual check of each case file would take 5 minutes and there are approximately 70,000 notices issued in each of those years which is 17,500 hours and therefore in excess of the appropriate cost limit. 

Under the Act, there is a duty to provide advice and assistance as to how a request can be refined to fit within the appropriate limit. Unfortunately, due to the way the data is held, this is not possible for this request. 

5. What is the total revenue generated from fines related to drivers parking in a bay without a blue badge in each of the last 3 calendar years (2022, 2023, 2024)?

6. Please share the total number of Blue Badge permit (a) renewal applications and (b) new applications in each of the last 3 calendar years (2022, 2023, 2024).

Please specify how many of these were rejected and, if possible, for what reason.

Every application which is rejected is because the the assessment has confirmed that the applicant does not meet Department for Transport eligibility criteria to be awarded a blue badge.

7. Of all the Blue Badge parking permits that are currently valid within your area, how many are for (a) visible and (b) non-visible disabilities.