Last year, Bromley Council proposed a number of changes to parking rules across the borough. One of the ideas put forward was to charge blue badge holders for parking. The Disabled Person’s Blue Badge scheme doesn’t automatically exempt Blue Badge holders from parking fees; the decision about whether to impose charges is up the individual highway authority.
Yesterday, Bromley Council confirmed the proposal will not proceed, given the significant wider council savings identified for 2025/26.
Councillor Nicholas Bennett, Executive Councillor for Transport, Highways and Road Safety said, “When the proposal to charge Blue Badge holders was made last November, we were facing a forecast deficit of over £53m in 2026/27 and there was a need to identify significant savings. I have decided that we do not need to introduce Blue Badge charges as we now have proposals for a balanced budget in 2025/26 and the forecast ‘budget deficit’ for 2026/27 has reduced to £26.6m.”
“Local councils across the country have issued Section 114 notices or are seeking Exceptional Financial Support from the government to borrow large sums or sell assets to balance their budgets, or to increase council tax way above the 4.99 per cent limit. Because of our strict budgetary policy over many years and our transformation programme, we do not face this problem. However, we still have challenging decisions to make in the coming years unless the government brings in fair funding for local government.”
The proposal to charge for parking in Normal Park was also scrapped at the end of last year when a clause was discovered in a lease which would have prohibited the introduction of such a fee.
Coney Hall Village Residents' Association (CHVRA) 