Disabled parking spaces

I was listening to a podcast of the Today Programme this week about a UK supermarket that is to fine drivers who use parking spaces for the disabled when they shouldn’t.

I was reminded about it when I went shopping this afternoon. The large supermarket that I went to had blocked off the mother and child spaces and two disabled bays to set up a barbecue stand to promote a type of beer.

These spaces are, of course, the nearest to the entrance and hence perfect for getting customers’ attention, but what about the poor people who rely on those spaces when they go shopping?

Worse still, one of our local supermarkets even had a sign in the window a while back saying that they had noticed people who were not disabled used the disabled spaces in front of the door, and would anyone who spots this please inform the information desk.

The sign has recently disappeared, which is rather convenient since they have used the two spaces themselves this weekend to sell asparagus and plants in front the shop!

I often wonder if some car parks overdo the number of disabled bays or Frauenparkplätze, I know some that have so many that you often have problems finding a normal space to park. This is due to automatic barriers that count cars in an out, but don’t take account of the distribution of the spaces within the car park itself.

But if you do provide such spaces, then I think it makes a mockery of them – and any notices displayed enforcing them – to use them for other purposes, irrespective of how few days the events are on for.