A pilot scheme allowing carers to park for free when on home visits looks likely to be extended in the New Year to community nurses.

It was introduced across Cornwall in April this year and since then almost 1,500 free permits have been issued to staff of Care Quality Commission accredited care organisations.

The Healthcare Permit works in a similar way to the blue badge scheme for disabled people. Carers are issued with a yellow badge which they are able to place in their windscreen, set the time and then park for up to an hour in many places where they wouldn’t normally be allowed to park.

However, even with a permit parking still isn’t allowed in loading bays, at bus stops or on zig zag lines outside of building like schools and hospitals. Specific parking bays such as those reserved for disabled drivers, doctors, taxis or residents are also not included in the scheme.

Now the council is looking to offer the same terms to community nurses, to allow them to spend as much time as possible helping the person they are caring for.

Geoff Brown, Cornwall Council’s portfolio holder for transport, said: “We introduced the scheme in April as a pilot, and always said we would like to extend it if it proved successful.

“I have remained convinced that the benefits to both carers and those members of the community they look after far outweighs the cost of the management of the scheme, and so I have asked officers to work up proposals for extending the scheme to community nurses in the New Year.”