BOURNEMOUTH may seek a parliamentary bill to stop all day parking by disabled drivers in on-street bays.

Around nine to 11 blue badge holders regularly park outside shops and stop customers from using the spaces, a councillor said.

Drivers with blue badges do not pay for on-street parking and they can park in metered areas for as long as they need to.

Traders told the Echo parking is a major issue for their customers.

Cllr Michael Filer said: “Not paying anything – that’s one thing. “But more importantly they are not allowing the shop keepers to operate.”

He was speaking at February’s meeting of Bournemouth Chamber of Trade and said that Westover Road traders, for example, were “frustrated”.

He said: “We are looking at this very closely, it’s very important.”

Cllr Filer is the cabinet member for transport.

He told the Echo afterwards: “The traffic wardens department advised me there are people with blue badges who do park in spaces for many hours, legally.

“Because as far as the law is concerned, you can’t do anything about it.”

Cllr Filer said he was told London has a special bill to stop people doing the same thing in places like Oxford Street.

“We need to look into having a Bournemouth Bill as well,” he said.

The Echo went to look at the situation on Westover Road on Friday afternoon.

There were six cars parked in a designated disabled parking area. On the rest of the street, which was mostly covered by traffic meters with a two hour limit charged at £1.20, there were four vehicles with disabled badges and 33 other cars.

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Andy Newland, manager of Moss Bross, said: “I haven’t seen any problems with that. The biggest problem is parking on the street is not well designed.”

Tom Aird, manager of Whitewall Gallery, said: “People generally tend to complain about the price of parking. We haven’t had any complaints about that.”