Blue Badge Holders Face EU Status Removal Before the Rest of the UK
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On the 31st January 2020, the UK officially left the EU. Even though Britain is still undergoing its transition period, the government has removed the EU emblem and the twelve stars from Blue Badge parking permits. Why and what could this mean?
There has been plenty of speculation and uncertainty on Brexit over the past few years and what will happen once the UK leaves the European Union. One of the biggest concerns has been for IDs and permits (especially for those whose expiry dates are not for a good few years yet) and whether citizens will need to apply for new ones to prevent risk of them being invalid.
The Blue Badge Goes Bare
Blue Badge holders can now expect to see their permits without the EU emblem and twelve gold stars. The Department for Transport has refused to disclose any information as to who officially made this decision, or why and when this will happen. This has raised great concern for Blue Badge holders. Most fear they will no longer be able to use their parking permit when visiting the EU, when they are technically still a part of it as Britain is undergoing the transition period. Over 2 million people in the UK own the disabled parking permit with the EU background. The new badge has remained blue but it came as a shock to those who have received a new permit recently – hoping to have one that stated they still remained a member of the EU until the official transition at the end of the year. In recent news, one holder was sent their renewed Blue Badge only to discover it no longer had the EU credentials on it and they had no previous warning about this change. The UK’s initial expectation was that there would be no delays with Brexit, but now there is almost a year long wait. So, why will they be removing any connection to the EU from our ID’s before we have even left? The change to disabled parking permits was initiated shortly after the decision to redesign British passports by the UK government.
UK Passport Redesign
Many people across the UK will be planning to go on holiday this year and the government has been back and forth about removing the words ‘European Union’ on the front of British passports. The decision was recently finalised and the redesign will take place from the 30th March 2020, however, old passports will still be valid for travel for a short period of time. There are a lot of questions still waiting to be answered. UK citizens have been uncertain for a while in regards to Brexit. They now are wondering whether redesign is worth doing early in case other changes come into force regarding the Brexit deals. The UK can only assume for now that Blue Badge permits will remain valid in the EU during the country’s transition period, expected until the 31st December 2020.
