Parking for Blue Badge holders

We want to make it easier for people with mobility disabilities to visit Southampton’s leisure and shopping areas, so we have provided disabled persons parking bays in our city centre car parks.

Holders of valid blue badges can park free of charge in the councils surface car parks, if the badge is clearly displayed on the dashboard. We must be able to see the expiry date; otherwise you may be given a parking fine.

If the car park you are parking in has no disabled bays, or if they are full, the blue badge can be used in any other bay.

The council provides free parking for blue badge holders in most of its car parks, except for the multi-storey car parks at Grosvenor Square, Marlands, Eastgate Street and Bedford Place. There are disabled bays in these car parks, but you will have to pay for parking.

Vehicles parked in disabled bays, without valid blue badges may be given a parking fine.

You can park in Southampton's on-street disabled parking bays, resident permit parking bays, limited waiting and ‘pay and display’ meter bays free for as long as you need if you have a valid blue badge. If your vehicle is displaying a valid blue badge you may also park on single and double yellow lines for up to three hours (you must display the clock with your badge), as long as your vehicle is not blocking the road, or parked in a marked ‘no loading/unloading’ area.

Car Club parking bays are however restricted for the use of Car Club vehicles.

Misuse of badges

There are a large number of cases where blue badges are misused each year. In some cases, details on expired badges have been changed. In other cases, badges allocated to people who have died continue to be used. Some drivers use badges without the badge holder being present and without their knowledge. Some people will even go to the lengths of making counterfeit copies of badges. The council's parking enforcement team keep a record of all reported lost or stolen blue badges in Southampton, and these are checked against displayed badges

The misuse of blue badges may be a criminal offence, with a maximum fine of £1,000. Southampton City Council has successfully prosecuted a number of people for the misuse of a disabled persons blue badge.

Measures to tackle abuse of the blue badge scheme for disabled people came into force in 2006. The police, traffic wardens, local authority parking attendants and civil enforcement officers are able to inspect blue badges as part of their jobs. If a person refuses (without reasonable excuse) to produce a badge for inspection, it is an offence, and you may have to pay a fine of up to £1,000. Parking services are carrying out regular routine checks of blue badges throughout the city boundary in conjunction with the police.

If you would like to contact the council to advise us of any alleged misuse of Blue Badges, you can do so in several ways.

• You can contact us by email on parking.services@southampton.gov.uk Please type "Blue badge misuse" in the subject line.

• You can write to us at Parking Services, Southampton City Council, PO Box 1098, Southampton, SO14 7WE.

• You can ring us on 023 8083 4600 between 8.30am - 4.30pm.

You will need you to supply us with as much relevant information as you can to assist in any investigation.

For example:

The name and address of the person suspected of misusing a blue badge.
The vehicle registration number that the blue badge is being misused in.
The serial number of the misused blue badge.
The nature of misuse.

We will treat your communication as highly confidential, and will respect any request to remain anonymous if desired

To apply for a blue badge, you should contact social services’ blue badge team. There is a link from the left of this page to the application form.