Proposals to charge blue badge holders to park at council-run car parks across Monmouthshire are being bitterly opposed by local campaigners.

One person who works with the disabled community told the Chronicle, “They’ve taken out of the picture all of the people who were parking illegally with blue badges by penalising everyone.

“This will only have an effect on genuinely disabled people who should be the only ones benefitting from the system.

“Disabled people are being penalised for the council’s inability to police the system.”

Consultation on the controversial plan comes to an end next Friday.

The introduction of the charge would be subject to new ticket machines being installed - and blue badge holders would also get an hour’s free parking over what they pay.

Secretary of the disability support group CAIR, Jenny Barnes, who has lodged objections with the council on behalf of CAIR members, said she was incensed by the unfairness of the idea.

“Disabled people are among the poorest sections of the community. The council’s own figures and those of the Welsh Assembly show this - and the council has deemed that they will be protected from falling further behind. It’s the first of MCC’s stated Outcomes, so charging for car parking is against council policy,” she said.

Jenny points out that Iain Duncan Smith MP resigned from his government post because the budget penalised disabled people and made the wealthy better off - and since then the government had dropped proposals for further cuts in disabled people’s incomes.

“We think that these Monmouthshire proposals have the same effect. They are unfair to some of the poorest people in our community yet the council has not given us any justification for what they are proposing to do - and you can’t mitigate for the hardship this will cause by offering people an extra hour free!

“Many disabled people have had their benefit already cut in reviews. They appear to be being punished for not being able to work.

“We’re aware the council is short of money but it seems very unfair to impose parking charges for the first time on this section of the community, and no-one has said how much revenue they think this will bring in.”

She added, “It’s hard work being disabled, it’s not a lifestyle choice. All this will make things extra hard on a disabled person shopping in the town - and Abergavenny needs the money disabled local people and tourists spend here.”

She also pointed out that, since blue badge holders are entitled to park on the street for nothing that’s exactly what many will be forced to do - with the risk of the congestion this could cause.

Jenny Barnes said CAIR wanted to know how much the new ticket machines and car park alterations would cost - and how much of this cost would be covered by the parking fees charged to disabled people.

She said it was essential that the new ticket machines were accessible to disabled people, ‘but who will decide if they’re accessible - surely not the manufactures selling them to the council?’.

Graham Preece, secretary of Friends of Abergavenny Shopmobility, has also sent MCC objections to the proposals.

“The real frustration is that there are so many people who aren’t genuine blue badge holders using the blue badges to claim free parking,” he said.

“When the misuse of the system came to the attention of the council the response was to make everyone pay.

“But charging genuine blue badge holders for the misuse of the system by others is hardly a fair solution.”

He felt the council needed to implement photo ID blue cards so that the corrupt system could be stopped.

“Genuine badge holders would have no problem showing their eligibility to the system, so why not implement policing of the car parks?” he said.

“If you’re genuinely disabled, you wouldn’t object to policing.”

He said the cost of installing new ticket machines to meet the needs of disabled people would be far greater than the revenue the council was losing through people cheating the blue badge system or the cost of employing someone to police the car parks.

And he anticipated that some people would start shopping in other towns such as Cwmbran once the parking charges were introduced, which would knock the local economy.

Any recommendations or objections related to the proposals should be sent by post to Roger Hoggins, Head of Operations, PO Box 106, Caldicot NP26 9AN or emailed to [email protected] by April 22.

* Under the wider proposals affecting all motorists, county car parks would be designated either non-charging, long stay and short stay. There would be an option to buy a five-day or weekly parking ticket for £15 and £18 respectively at long stay car parks.

In Abergavenny there would be no charge in any car park after 4pm and parent and toddler car parking spaces would be introduced to Castle Street and Fairfield car parks.

Free parking would remain in Usk, Magor, Caldicot, Gilwern and Goytre while Byefield car park in Abergavenny, currently free, would cost £1 a day.