Hackney scraps 'flawed' disabled parking system

Hackney Council has scrapped a "flawed" scoring system it used for disabled parking assessments which denied residents of blue badges.

The additional guidelines in this system were found to have caused "injustice".

Councillor Christopher Kennedy, the borough's health and social care chief, confirmed the council would write to all 149 individuals refused a permit since January 2024.

The verdict came after resident Mrs D appealed to the regulator after the council refused to renew her blue badge, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

In April, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Amerdeep Comal, decided that Hackney's "flawed policy" went against government guidance.

He added that it had made it "very difficult for people with disabilities to qualify for a permit" and that it was "likely more people were also denied a permit when they would have qualified, had Hackney's guidance followed that of the government".

During a cabinet meeting at the Town Hall, Mr Kennedy said Hackney Council honoured the regulator's ruling by apologising to Mrs D, paying her £500 and offering her another in-person appraisal.

He added that the watchdog "did not tell us that Mrs D should be given a blue badge", but rather that she was entitled to another assessment without the flawed scoring system.

The Greens' co-leader, Zoë Garbett, asked the health and social care chief if the local authority had identified any lessons it had learned from the process to avoid a repeat of the situation.

But Mr Kennedy said this was "very difficult" because of the circumstances under which she was given a blue badge in the first places.

"Mrs D was offered a permit without a physical in-person assessment during the pandemic," he said.

"Her subsequent desire to really investigate how we did our assessments was driven by the fact that the subsequent decisions from an in-person assessment did not match with what happened when there were no in-person assessments."

However, he acknowledged the council had not "handled it very well as an organisation" and had communicated poorly with the resident, including getting her date of birth wrong.

In April, the watchdog said the council had only "partially" accepted its findings, and disputed the conclusion that it had caused injustice.

A Town Hall spokesperson subsequently told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) it accepted the findings but was "confident" the majority of blue badge applications were assessed correctly and would undertake a review to ensure processes were "fair and robust".

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