MORE should be done to crack down on motorists misusing the blue badge scheme, Caerphilly's Plaid Cymru group has said.

The group has said Caerphilly County Borough Council should follow in the footsteps of Bridgend council, which undertook a two-day crackdown in August - resulting 20 badges which were not being used properly.

This comes after the group’s Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed that the council had not carried out an exercise in the past five years to see if badges - issued to disabled drivers to allow them easier parking - are being misused.

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There are currently 15,399 blue badge holders across the county borough - but the Plaid group have said there are concerns that some people are misusing the system.

The leader of Caerphilly’s Plaid group Cllr Colin Mann said: “There are concerns that some people may be misusing blue badges to which they are not entitled.

“But in Caerphilly county we don’t have a clue of the extent of the problem because the council has done no exercises for at least five years and not a single badge has been removed for dishonesty.

“I am calling on the Labour leadership to instigate checks as happened in Bridgend where significant abuse was uncovered.

“We need to operate a zero-tolerance policy in Caerphilly.

“If someone misuses a blue badge, they are taking away a disabled parking place from those that need it as they go about their business.”

The cabinet member for corporate services at Caerphilly council Cllr Colin Gordon said: “It is important to note that we only assumed responsibility for civil parking enforcement in April 2019, and as part of these powers we check the validity of the badge and that the vehicle is parked appropriately.

“We work proactively with our partners and local residents to destroy badges for those who have deceased which certainly eliminates the chances of the badge being used fraudulently.

“When badges are issued residents also receive the Blue Badge Scheme Rights and Responsibilities in Wales booklet which reminds them of their obligations to use the badge appropriately.”

This comes after a National Fraud Initiative report earlier this year found that 133 blue badge errors in Caerphilly were recorded where deceased residents’ records had not been updated.

The report said: “No direct cash value has been recorded for these although misuse of blue badges can lead to losses in parking and other public revenues.”

The council said that it wasn’t blue badge errors, but a case of where the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) system and the blue badge system are not integrated.

This means that the blue badge team has not been informed that the holder has died.

This could be for a number of reasons such as the relatives may not live in the borough, the blue badge holder may not be living in the borough at the time they died or the blue badge holder may have moved into sheltered accommodation or residential care.

Since the report, 128 of the ‘errors’ have identified the blue badge holder as deceased.

The misuse of a blue badge is subject to a penalty on conviction of up to £1,000, although this can potentially increase to more than £5,000 in cases of fraud.