227.Section 94 amends section 21 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 which established the disabled persons parking badge scheme (“the Blue Badge Scheme”). The scheme provides certain parking concessions for disabled people. The effect of the provisions introduced by section 94 is that police, traffic wardens, local authority parking attendants and civil enforcement officers will have the power to require blue badges issued under the scheme to be produced for inspection. Apart from the police, these bodies only have this power when carrying out their other parking enforcement functions.
228.Section 94 requires anyone in the vehicle, or anyone who appears to the enforcement officer to have been, or to be about to get into a vehicle displaying a disabled person’s parking badge, to produce it for inspection. It creates an offence of failing without reasonable excuse to produce a badge when required to do so by any of the authorised persons. On conviction the offence is punishable by a fine not exceeding level 3 (£1,000) on the standard scale.
229.Use of surplus income from parking charges and penalty charges is governed by section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. Once the need for provision of off-street parking facilities and to make good deficits to central funding has been met, use of surpluses is currently confined to the provision of public transport services or to road improvements. Section 95 amends section 55 to add to that list the additional purpose of using surplus income to fund local environmental improvements. “Environmental improvement” is defined in a broad sense to encompass recreational or scenic improvements. It also amends section 55 to enable the appropriate national authority to make regulations specifying classes or descriptions of authorities, or particular authorities (for example those which may be designated under section 99 of the Local Government Act 2003 as high-performing authorities), as having complete freedom in the way they spend surplus parking income once the needs of parking provision have been considered.
230.Section 96 provides that references in Schedule 1 to the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999, to the Highways Act 1980, the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, are to be read as references to those Acts as amended by the Act. The Order provides for the transfer of the certain functions to the National Assembly for Wales.
231.Section 97 makes provision for money to be provided by Parliament to meet costs attributable to the Act. Subsection (1)(a) provides statutory authority for the costs of setting up the traffic officer service and establishing regional control centres and traffic information systems.
232.Section 98 and Schedule 12 provide for repeals of existing legislation. Those repeals in Part 1 of Schedule 12 will be consequent on the making of regulations under Part 6 of the Act.
233.Section 99 provides for the Secretary of State (in England) or the National Assembly for Wales (in Wales) to commence the provisions in this Act by order, providing for different provisions to be commenced on different dates and for Part 6 and related appeals to be commenced on different dates for different areas (e.g. London as opposed to the rest of England). The section also provides that the Secretary of State (in England) or the National Assembly for Wales (in Wales), may by order make transitional provision or savings in connection with the coming into force of any provisions in this Act.