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Phone: / 0300 123 6736Email: /
Date 25 January 2018
Dear Mr David Massey,
THE EUROPEAN BLUE BADGE SCHEME FOR PARKING CONCESSIONS FOR DISABLED AND SEVERELY SIGHT IMPAIRED (BLIND) PEOPLE
Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding your concerns regarding the Blue Badge Scheme.
As you may be aware, Lancashire County Council delivers the Blue Badge Service on behalf of the Department for Transport (DfT) and as such has very strict guidelines which must be adhered to when assessing eligibility for a Blue Badge.
In all cases, entitlement depends on an applicant's difficulty in walking. In order to qualify for a Blue Badge, it must be demonstrated that they have a permanent and substantial disability which causes considerable difficulty walking.
At the point where the customer completes the Online Application, this allows the applicant to provide details of their condition(s) and how this affects their ability to walk. When assessing an application it isonly the information that has been provided to us on the application form that is used in the assessment process. It is often self-evident from the information contained within the application that theapplicant meets the eligibility criterion. However, in some instances during the assessment process if it is not possible to make a positive decision based on the information provided on the application form, this is when further medical evidence would be requested.
The Dft Guidelines note that the regulations precludes the use of both the applicants GP and anyone else who has been involved in the applicants ongoing care and treatment in determining an applicant's eligibility, however it does not prevent Local Authorities from making the use of factual information from the GP or from any other medical professional regarding an applicant condition(s) and treatment(s) as evidence to support the eligibility decision making process.
We constantly strive to make improvements to the service and one of the ways we look to do this is by taking feedback from Customer's, GP's and other Medical Professionals.
Taking this feedback into consideration the Scheme made the decision to amend the outcome letters which now note that GP evidence would be acceptable however we would not be in a position to reimburse any costs.
The service also received recommendations from the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO)who found thatas a Local Authority we would be at 'fault' if we did not accept GP evidence in the event that the customer was unable to provide other medical evidence.
The service would not insist that the applicant provides a GP letter and we do make it clear that copies of prescriptions and hospital letters are acceptable if this evidences' the applicant's condition and how this affects their ability to walk. At no point would we advise a customer that a GP practice would assist them with this service and as such each practice would have their own policy.
Please can I assure you we do not want to cause theNHS service any additional workload, however these changes have been put in place pervalued feedback and also from recommendations from the LGO.
I hope that this addresses your concerns but please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries.
Yours sincerely,
Sharon Robinson
Blue Badge Service
Lancashire County Council.
LCC Blue Badge Service PO BOX 100, County Hall, Preston, PR1 0LD
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