AN enraged family have revealed how a “fast-tracked” disabled parking badge arrived for their father – a year after his death.
Keith McAllister told he had eight weeks to live last February and promised rapid delivery of a blue badge to help keep him mobile during his last days.
But not only did the badge fail to arrive before his death in April, it was not actually delivered until just over a fortnight ago.
Keith’s family say they are “appalled” that the original failure to deliver the badge quickly was compounded by sending it so long after his death.
Keith, 62, from Crieff, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in February.
His son Cameron, 29, from Sheffield, applied for the blue badge shortly afterwards and was assured by the council it would be fast-tracked.
Despite filling out a form to tell Perth and Kinross Council that Keith had died, the badge eventually arrived on March 10 and they were made to sign for it.
Speaking today Cameron said: “It was really difficult as we had started to get on with life. It was a reminder of the hard times we had to endure the previous year.
“It would have been very useful as it would have made him feel more confident to go out and visit a few places during his final weeks.”
Cameron added: “There wasn’t an indication of how long it would take to fast track the blue badge but we assumed it would be within a few weeks.
“Then we received this letter and blue badge on March 10.”
Cameron’s partner, Stephanie Edmonds told a local paper: “I’m a bit appalled and at a loss of why it would take them so long to process this – and how they did not realise he was deceased.
“It’s distressing enough to receive a signed for letter for someone who has died, but for what is more worrying is the thought that this may be happening to other families too.
“Is the fast track scheme really a year long? Or did our permit maybe get lost and now only just processed?
“The sad part is that it would have really helped to have had the permit when he was alive as he was paralysed on half his body and wheelchair bound.”
A spokeswoman for Perth and Kinross Council said: “We are very sorry for the unintentional distress caused to Mr McAllister’s family.
“The Tell Us Once service is intended to save bereaved families from having to pass the same information to multiple Council and government departments.
“As there was no blue badge registered in Mr McAllister’s name at that time a notification was not sent to that department.
“ The application for a blue badge was put on hold last year awaiting some ID documentation.
“An email containing this documentation and referring to the previous application was received by the blue badges email account in February 2019 and the pass was subsequently issued.
“At the moment we do not know why this email arrived in February, and IT colleagues are investigating whether the delay occurred before or after the email entered the Council systems.
“While this is not a situation we are aware of having happened before, we are using this to review our procedures to see what steps we can take to avoid this happening again.”
