Refused a Blue Badge - Council ignored Due Process

In December last year Reading Borough Council refused my application for a Blue Badge within three hours of my assessment on the grounds that my condition was not permanent, (osteoarthritis), and that I was about to have a knee replacement.

I appealed both of these reasons as being contrary to DfT guidelines to Local Authorities and the BB was immediately issued, "on the basis of new evidence which you supplied" . However, I did not supply any new evidence, I concentrated on demolishing the reasons which they gave for the initial refusal.

I have now made a formal complaint to the MD that the original refusal did not follow due process, and that, as a result, I had been discriminated against under the Equality Act 2010.

I am not seeking compensation, but have requested the MD to review all previous refusals in order to ensure that no other applicants have been refused blue badges on similar grounds.

In my opinion my initial application was a certain issue, and that, in their headlong rush to prevent abuse, RBC, (and no doubt other LAs), have set the bar far too high.