Local Transport Bill [HL]

Before the noble Lord withdraws his amendment, in fairness to Durham I ought to put on the record that, as I understand it, disabled persons who book a disabled parking place within the congestion zone under its scheme receive a permit to lower the bollard which provides the access. That is for people with blue badges, and I accept what the noble Lord says about blue badges; that was an interesting point. To be fair to Durham, it gave some consideration to these issues. It may be that the noble Lord is right and that consideration should have been somewhat wider, but the fact that it considered the needs of disabled people who might want a parking place actually means that it has given some thought to the general issue of those with a disability who might be affected by the scheme. Clearly, it is for local people to make the case for different ranges of considerations. We certainly expect that those who come forward with a scheme through the Transport Innovation Fund will have done exactly that. We take these issues seriously. Clearly, we want the scheme to be popular, workable, accessible and not adversely impact those who need to have access to areas which those with a disability might.