Soldier turned Nottinghamshire councillor recalls how he was denied blue badge despite losing a leg in Afghanistan

Coun Johno Lee had disabled parking blue badge applications turned down by Nottinghamshire Council in 2010.

He racked up parking fines worth more than £1,000 after parking in disabled bays as he was using a wheelchair at the time and could not walk long distances.

Despite this, he later chose to join the authority as a Conservative member – and said he is “delighted” the council is now “being rigorous in our approach to tackling blue badge fraud”.

It comes after the council said it is working proactively to “respond to the threat of blue badge fraud”.

New figures show the authority has withdrawn or cancelled 480 blue badges in the last two years.

The issue was discussed during the latest meeting of the council’s governance and ethics committee.

Disabled people can apply for blue badges which usually allow free parking and access to spaces closer to the destination.

Coun Lee, committee vice-chairman, spoke about his experience after he was denied a blue badge after being injured in a minefield explosion in 2007.

He said: “My application was rejected by the council.

“I got told on the phone I was rejected because I would get better. The comment I made back was ‘do you think my leg is going to grow back?’

“I challenged the decision and my story national. Within 24 hours I got a blue badge through the door.”

He said that, after the experience, he wanted to get involved with politics to “make a change”.

Coun Lee said he has previously been asked by individuals in supermarket car parks why he has parked in a disabled space.

He said: “On more than one occasion I’ve been at Waitrose where people will ask me if I am disabled and if I should be parking in a blue badge place.

“We need to take into consideration not everyone with a blue badge will look disabled.

“The council needs to take action to get rid of illegal badges taking away precious parking spaces from the people who need them.

“Of course, there will be cases which slip through the net ,but the majority of people who genuinely do require a blue badge meet the strict criteria and are deserving of them.”

The council says in the last two years, blue badge fraud was worth about £276,000.

Council papers describe how it is planning an audit of the notification process, which tells relatives to notify government organisations of someone’s death under the ‘tell it once’ process.

The recent figures which form part of the National Fraud Initiative mark a decrease in withdrawn blue badges in previous years.

From 2018-20, 576 badges were withdrawn or cancelled.

Coun Philip Owen, meeting chairman, said: “I think this report demonstrates we are doing something about it with the number of blue badges we’ve taken back.

“If you know of people using it fraudulently then let us know.”