Committee welcomes online blue badge applications

28 Sep 2016 04:25 PM

The Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Infrastructure has welcomed the introduction of online applications for blue badges.

At its meeting yesterday the Committee discussed the recent announcement by the Minister, Chris Hazzard, which will reduce the backlog of applications by cutting some of the processing work needed to issue the badges.

Chairperson of the Committee, William Humphrey MLA said: "My Committee wrote to the Minister on the 14th to request an explanation of the deplorable delay in issuing new blue badges and to demand that the Minister redress this situation immediately.

"We are pleased therefore that the Minister appears to have taken our concerns on-board and initiated this new online application form. We sincerely hope that this will make it easier for those who need blue badges to obtain them more quickly.

"The delay in issuing new blue badges has seriously impacted those with mobility difficulties and while we are pleased that some processes have been put into place to alleviate this situation, we still are keen to know why the delay occurred in the first place.

"We will return to this matter in the future to ensure that this does not happen again."