AS I SEE IT: Parent and child parking spaces at supermarkets

Anyone with small children will be familiar with the scenario... rainy day, supermarket trip essential, usual deferment tactics exhausted.

While waiting for a space recently at my local supermarket in Clitheroe I made for the “Parent and Child” section of the car park, only to witness in the region of four cars drive into both these and the disabled spaces with no children or badge evident, and with not so much as a backward glance.

On speaking to the customer services desk at the said supermarket (after having wrestled my daughter out of her car seat, through a small gap between ours and the next car and across the car park mid-downpour) it was explained with slight disinterest that there was nothing they could do about it.

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“Happens all the time” observed the store’s representative, helpfully. “We used to try and say something, but it only ends up in us getting a mouthful of abuse.”

It turns out that this is a very common frustration. Some of my braver cohorts who have tackled offenders on witnessing their seemingly ignorant behaviour have not been surprised to find that their complaints have fallen on deaf ears.

“The kind of people who ignore the reason for designated spaces tend to be the kind of people who have already disregarded their manners and sense of common courtesy,” said a friend.

Is this a view commonly held? Or is it acceptable to use the spaces when in a rush and as another friend put it, “just running in to pick up an item or two”?

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I spoke to the three major supermarkets in Clitheroe to clarify their policies on the matter.

Sainsburys police the use of their spaces and feel that it’s important to remind their customers why thy have the policy in the first place. “We feel it’s necessary that customers with younger children or a disability are accommodated and given easy access to the store. We therefore speak to anyone parking there in the first instance to explain. If the customer refuses to move their car, they are issued with a £60 fine.”

Booths assistant manager reported that they also like to speak to customers in the event they see anyone abusing priority parking. “We don’t tend to have a big problem with this and customers who do not accept the policy are in the minority. We would speak to any offenders, but more to deter future use. Some people are genuinely not aware that they are doing anything wrong, so the use of a fining system would be wrong for us.”

Tesco say it is difficult to enforce the policy. “We try and speak to people and we have letters that can be handed out, but it’s not illegal, so we think fining is inappropriate.”

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With the differing approach of the three retailers, I find it hard to understand why some even bother to distinguish these spaces from the rest of the car park? Is it just me, or should I park my frustrations and drive around again?

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