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Blue Badge delays
Hi, I was wondering what people’s experience of assessed Blue Badges applications (not SR1 or passported by PIP mobility) is currently? What sort of timescales are people looking at when applying for a BB?
Also, if anyone has challenged the delays, maybe under the HRA or other grounds, what arguments have been used and where has that got them?
Maybe if I ask this question a different way…
Do you think that 6 months+ is an acceptable time frame to wait for a Blue Badge application to be processed and if not, what public law remedy might be available to a seriously ill applicant forced to wait that length of time?
I don’t think it’s acceptable personally. Around here it seems to take a few weeks for the ones that the Council are assessing themselves maybe a month or two at the most. Any delay tends to be if the client hasn’t been able to submit anything to corroborate what’s on their application form. Normally just a letter from a doctor that just indicates that they do have what they say they do (doesn’t need to be specifically for the blue badge but something to back up what’s been alleged on the form) will be enough to go with a well completed application form to get the Badge issued promptly.
As for a remedy I’m not sure I can think of anything from a public law perspective.
I wonder if it might be fruitful, in the first instance, a complaint via the Council’s complaints process? Certainly around here that always seems to unjam things quite effectively. Could also try and see if their local councilor might be interested in getting involved?