Disabled Persons Parking Spaces: Scottish Ministers Annual Report 2011 - 2012
Disabled Persons Parking Spaces: Scottish Ministers Annual Report 2011 - 2012
Disabled Persons' Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009 Annual Report on Local Authorities Functions 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012
Schedule Part 2, section 3 (a):
Section 1. Duty to promote use of parking places for disabled persons' vehicles.
Actions Taken
(1) Aberdeen City Council
From existing records at present over 1272 disabled on street parking spaces have been identified within Aberdeen together with a further 70 off street spaces within car parks regulated and managed by ACC. The disabled parking spaces within the city centre off street pay and display car parks have been previously regulated within the existing Off Street Car Park Order.
In recognition of the need to accelerate the formal identification and regulation of the on street spaces additional temporary staff were employed over the summer of 2011 to survey and schedule all on street disabled parking places. On completion of this city wide schedule the necessary Traffic Regulation Order has been reported to committee and the formal legislative procedure concluded. A contract for the relining and signing is to be let in the near future, and it is programmed to commence works in September of this year (2012).
The city wide order will form the basis for the regulation of the disabled parking places and will be consolidated at regular intervals updating both new spaces and those no longer required.
It will be necessary to progress the regulation of disabled parking places within both private and public off street car parks. We are currently liaising with our housing department to obtain details of all existing advisory parking places within parking facilities under their ownership. Once this data has been compiled, we will be in a position to fully commence the regulation of parking places within these premises and those within car parks managed and regulated by ACC.
(2) Aberdeenshire Council
Aberdeenshire Council promotes the proper use of parking spaces for the disabled persons' vehicles by routinely issuing excess charge notices to those using such spaces improperly in car parks covered by the Aberdeenshire Council (Off Street Parking) Order. The number of such notices issued during the reporting period (2011-12) was 30 of which 8 were subsequently cancelled when a blue badge was produced during the appeals' process.
(3) Angus Council
Ongoing. Angus Council has adhered to all requirements in section 1.
(4) Argyll & Bute Council
Collation of all Council controlled off -street disabled person's parking places is complete and orders are being prepared.
(5) City of Edinburgh Council
A letter was sent to 17954 non domestic rates payers and organisations explaining the key points of the Act and asking for confirmation if any had a car park with disabled parking places and if they wished the Council (CEC) to enforce such places.
Received a total of 2574 responses, 2541 said they did not want CEC to enforce. 33 organisations indicated they would like CEC to enforce which prompted a second letter; however, no further responses have been received.
CEC currently undertake enforcement of disabled persons' parking places which are currently governed by a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO). These are predominantly located within the Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ)
For new developments there are procedures in place to make the developer aware of the duty of local authorities to promote the proper use of parking places that are designated for use only by disabled persons' vehicles. As part of the planning process the developer is asked if they wish CEC to enforce disabled persons' parking places. To date no developer has requested CEC to provide this service.
(6) Clackmannanshire Council
Council has signed and lined on-street bays as required.
(7) Dumfries & Galloway Council
The Council has made Disabled Persons' Parking Places Orders at each of the four area offices to provide new disabled persons' parking places and to consolidate existing disabled parking bays.
(8) Dundee City Council
Publications through the press were issued to inform motorists that enforcement would commence should a Blue Badge not be displayed in the window of a vehicle parked within a bay clearly marked for the sole use of a disabled persons' vehicle. Information is available on the DCC website relating to the scheme, rights and responsibilities of Blue Badge holders and the scheme itself.
(9) East Ayrshire Council
Traffic Regulation Order made in July 2011. All 238 qualifying bays are signed and lined as per TSRGD 2002.
The initial Order for 238 on-street bays was made in July 2011. The Council implementing decriminalised parking enforcement from 1st July 2012. In order to include the provisions of DPE, the permitted simplified Order making procedure was used to consolidate The East Ayrshire Council (Disabled Persons' Designated Parking Places) Order 2011. Because of this requirement it has not been possible to start the statutory process to include those qualifying on-street bays identified during 2011-12 in the Order.
(10) East Dunbartonshire Council
The roads authority has carried out an audit of parking spaces to ensure that those enforceable bays have the statutory markings and meet the minimum prescribed dimensions to allow the police to carry out enforcement duties. Locations for the bollards bearing the order information have been identified within one settlement location.
(11) East Lothian Council
Advertising literature "Don't park in my space" has been displayed in all Council offices.
(12) East Renfrewshire Council
End of consultation period for on-street and off-street Orders is the 10th August 2012. All bays are marked as per the TSRGD and accompanied by the appropriate signage.
(13) Falkirk Council
Falkirk Council considered all requests for disabled persons parking places by qualifying persons and has where possible commenced the statutory process to make Orders for those applicants. It has developed its own Performance Indicator to monitor the period of time to process applications for on-street disabled persons' parking places.
(14) Fife Council
Traffic Regulation Orders, covering advisory on-street disabled bays within residential streets and advisory off-street disabled bays within public car parks, were operational as from 16th January 2012 and all existing bays to be retained have the necessary sign erected to allow enforcement. The first of regular 6 monthly updates to the traffic order schedules has been completed and the TROs are currently being formally amended to add new bays and to remove bays which have since become redundant.
Discussions regarding including relevant advisory bays in Council facilities car parks within the off-street TRO are still on-going and at present no facilities car parks are covered by the TRO.
No progress has been made regarding relevant private car parks, however information is available on the Council's web site should private car park owners or managers wish to discuss enforcement of advisory disabled bays.
(15) Glasgow City Council
Glasgow City Council has continued the migration of former advisory road markings to the marking to diagram 1028.3. All new developments have been checked and where necessary they have been contacted and invited to participate.
Due to the current financial constraints, Glasgow has been unable to proceed with a blanket Order to implement the residential part of the Act. The Orders have been drafted, however we are seeking to reduce the implementation costs. The Council has an ongoing programme of updating the markings on street to conform to the current regulations.
(16) Highland Council
For the purpose of this exercise The Highland Council has been divided into 7 districts. The following action has been taken:
On-street: A Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) was introduced in 2 districts by 31 March 2012. The consultation process has been successfully completed in another 3 districts and will be progressed when site work is completed. One district is at the consultation stage and the final district has been presented to local members for observations.
Off-street: Council Managed - 67 disabled persons' parking places have been identified in Council managed car parks. This is on-going and more will be identified in due course.
Private - By 31 March letters had been issued to business premises in 4 districts. Letters have since been sent to businesses in the remaining districts. Responses are being evaluated.
Limited resources have been concentrated on preparing TROs for on-street disabled parking places. Now that the process in relation to these is well in hand, with all districts expected to have a TRO in place by the end of the current financial year, efforts will be concentrated on identifying and preparing TROs for all off-street disabled parking places.
(17) Inverclyde Council
The Council promotes the creation of parking places for disabled persons through an on-line application process on the Council's website.
(18) Midlothian Council
In the last year, all pre-existing bays designated for disabled motorists have been incorporate into a Traffic Order and made fully enforceable. In addition, all designated bays in off-street car parks for which the Council has responsibility have been identified, assessed and incorporated into an Order, allowing those also to be enforced.
A steady stream of new applications is being received from disabled people who are experiencing difficulty in parking close to their homes, and who are now able to take advantage of the new legislation to request that a new bay be provided. In the current year the Council will seek to reduce the overall time taken to complete applications, subject to available resources.
(19) Moray Council
Following the process undertaken previously, to identify all historic advisory disabled parking spaces, the council have been assessing all new applications over the second reporting period (1/4/2011 to 31/3/2012 in accordance with the Act and supporting advice.
(20) North Ayrshire Council
First made order implemented July 2011. Second DPPP Order currently being prepared.
(21) North Lanarkshire Council
North Lanarkshire Council has continued to assess requests for disabled persons' parking places and made progress with the promotion of the Orders to make the parking spaces enforceable by the police. Temporary markings have been placed at all approved locations and will remain in place until the permanent markings are established when the Orders are made.
(22) Orkney Islands Council
The Council has identified both on-street and off-street parking places.
(23) Perth & Kinross Council
All on and off street bays identified and lined and signed to allow enforcement.
(24) Renfrewshire Council
The Council has recently completed consultation on 249 bays. 12 of these are undergoing further investigation due to representations being made. Order anticipated early August 2012.
The Council is finalising a draft 2nd order which will contain 174 bays omitted from the initial order due to a variety of problems plus 90 new additional bays with further applications expected until statutory consultation commenced.
(25) Scottish Borders Council
The Council has designated on-street disabled spaces; provided advisory disabled on-street and off street spaces; provided enforceable off-street disabled parking place through traffic regulation orders including some in car parks under private ownership; enforced off-street parking regulations; and, encouraged on-street enforcement by Police.
(26) Shetland Council
Council undertook consultation exercise to businesses etc to determine whether they require an off-street disabled parking place.
(27) South Ayrshire Council
South Ayrshire Council introduced the first DPPP Order in 2010. The Order was updated in 2011 to include all bays applicable within the Council area at that time.
(28) South Lanarkshire Council
The Council enforces the regulated disabled persons' parking bays in line with its policies and procedures.
(29) Stirling Council
Stirling Council as local roads authority, in accordance with its duties to promote the proper use of parking places for disabled persons' vehicles has, under section 1 of the Act, assessed all applications received under the existing criteria which was amended following the introduction of the Disabled Persons' Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009. Where the applicant meets the criteria for a disabled persons parking space outside their property, arrange for the marking of an advisory space by in-house contractor within 10 working days in order to speed up the process until such time as the TRO could be processed. Once the TRO process had been completed, arranged for the necessary signage to be erected. On completion of TRO, entered applicant / TRO details into a database to ensure a record is maintained.
(30) West Dunbartonshire Council
West Dunbartonshire has an up to date database for all on-street disabled parking bays; this identifies those already legally enforceable and those which are advisory only. This is constantly updated to include all on-street parking bays. In early 2012 a new TRO was promoted to include all on-street bays marked up to 31/3/12. Bays marked since then will be included in the next TRO amendment.
(31) West Lothian Council
The council has provided information to various sources in order to reach as much of the community as possible. This includes providing information on the council web page during the statutory advertisement period; newspaper advert to start the statutory advertisement period; and, information on provisions available on the web at all times.
(32) Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
Fourteen parking places in the town of Stornoway are in the process of being promoted. The council will continue to promote the Disabled Persons Parking Places (Scotland ) Act 2009 and seek to obtain third party support.
Further Information
a) section 3 (b): the total number of parking places designated by individual local authorities as being for use only by a disabled person's vehicle by virtue of the provisions of this Act (except section 9):
| Aberdeen City | 46 |
| Aberdeenshire | 222 |
| Angus | 0 |
| Argyll & Bute | 0 |
| City of Edinburgh Council | 170 |
| Clackmannanshire | 19 |
| Dumfries & Galloway | 310 |
| Dundee | 904 |
| East Ayrshire | 238 |
| East Dunbartonshire | 365 |
| East Lothian | 0 |
| East Renfrewshire | 369 |
| Falkirk | 148 |
| Fife | 1608 |
| Glasgow | 0 |
| Highland | 985 |
| Inverclyde | 35 |
| Midlothian | 555 |
| Moray | 17 |
| North Ayrshire | 184 |
| North Lanarkshire | 1078 |
| Orkney | 194 |
| Perth & Kinross | 24 |
| Renfrewshire | 0 |
| Scottish Borders | 783 |
| Shetland | 28 |
| South Ayrshire | 269 |
| South Lanarkshire | 39 |
| Stirling | 427 |
| West Dunbartonshire | 690 |
| West Lothian | 175 |
| Western Isles (Comhairle nan Eilean Siar) | 172 |
| TOTAL | 10054 |
b) section 3 (c): for each category of information under paragraph 1 that requires the reporting of a number or a date, a table setting out the number reported by each local authority;
c) section 3 (d): for each category of information under paragraph 1 that requires the reporting of a period, a table setting out the period reported by each local authority;
d) section 3 (e): for each category of information under paragraph 1 that requires the reporting of reasons, a summary of the reasons reported by each local authority;
The excel spreadsheet attached to the report details the information required under the sections above.
e) section 4: other information about the performance by local authorities of their functions in relation to parking places for disabled persons' vehicles during the reporting period that the Scottish Ministers consider appropriate:
A number of local authorities have again commented on the demands on their resources in the present difficult financial climate and some have voiced concern about the interpretation of the legislation in the context of their duty to complete annual reports.
Transport Scotland
September 2012