More than 50 accessible parking permits were seized during a five-day blitz in London, conducted by the city’s parking services.
Between Dec. 4 and 8, permits were taken away for being expired, fraudulent, or used by someone other than the permit holder. More than 200 tickets were also issued for accessible parking violations.
Annette Drost, the manager of London’s municipal law enforcement services, says the campaign was partly prompted by complaints.
“Members of the accessibility community have indicated, as we already did know, that there’s a high number of violations and a lot of abuse of the permit system,” she explained.
The blitz brought parking services to both private and public parking lots. Each ticket carries a fine of $375.
In some cases, Drost said people were using permits belonging to people who’d died, were hospitalized, or living in a nursing home.
“So anytime we found somebody that was using someone else’s permit, and the permit holder wasn’t present, we confiscated that permit.”
Sometimes expired dates had been hidden from view and Drost said they discovered drivers who gave their old permits away when they applied for new ones.
“In some cases, it may have been taken without the permit holder’s knowledge.”
Accessible parking spaces are designated for people who have been issued a permit by the province and Drost says their misuse prevents the space from being available to those who need access.