The measures providing for parking concessions for persons with disability will be overhauled once Parliament approves the Parking Concessions to Persons with Disability Bill.
Opening the second reading, Parliamentary Secretary for Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing Justyne Caruana explained that the new law would provide for a parking card and designated parking concessions for persons with disability in line with EU regulations.
“The aim of this Bill is to facilitate the social integration and mobility of persons with disability by increasing accessibility and reducing the hardship they experience,” Dr Caruana said.
Social affairs shadow minister Paula Mifsud Bonnici confirmed the Opposition’s endorsement of this “important Bill, which would contribute to enhancing quality of life of persons with disability”.
Commonly referred to as the ‘blue badge’, the system was introduced in Malta in the late 1960s and was administered by the Corradino Physically Handicapped Rehabilitation Fund. Then, the entitlement was tied to the car rather than to the person.
In 1973, the management was transferred to the Police, until in 1988 the National Commission for Persons with Disability took over its administration.
While in 1993 the blue badge entitlement moved on to the person, rather than the car, the Commissioner of Police remained the issuing authority.
Currently there are 8,527 blue badge holders in Malta and Gozo.
In 2014, the National Commission for Persons with Disability initiated a review of the scheme together with Transport Malta, the Police and other stakeholders.
It transpired that there was no legal framework to administer and enforce the scheme and abuse crept in along the years.
Eligibility criteria are set in the new law, including permanent visual impairment, severe permanent impairment in both upper limbs, permanent inability to walk and severe permanent behavioural problems that require car use on a regular basis.
According to the proposed legislation the blue badge, administered by the Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disability and valid for five years, would enable a vehicle that the holder is driving, or in which he is travelling, to be parked in designated parking spaces.
Transport Malta will be responsible to create designated parking spaces in parking areas and public roads and local councils may make available further designated parking spaces.
The enforcement regime will also be overhauled. Currently, enforcement officers were making use of the provisions for double yellow parking where the maximum fine was €23, while the fines in European countries varied from €92 in Croatia up to £1,000 in the UK.
It is proposed that the fines for misuse of the blue badge should increase between €250 and €500, including towing of the vehicle. These fines will increase to between €1,000 and €1,500 for repeat offenders.
A blue badge holder who abuses the badge will forfeit its use.