AIBU to think Blue Badge holders can use parent and child spaces?

I'm surprised by this. My mum has a blue badge and specifically asked a traffic warden one time when there were no blue badge spaces, but there were parent and child ones. The traffic warden told of course she could. 🤷‍♀️

I see them all the time. I have just left the supermarket. Parent spaces (opposite in shot) are full and all 5 of these bays are empty:

@Wheelsoffiah good for you for sticking up for yourself at the time, but sorry you had to experience that. What an unimaginative, nasty ignoramus she was.

Grrr!

Also remember that parents will need to use these spaces for a short while in their life....

... but disabled users mostly have the misfortune to need them for the rest of their lives :-(

It’s a combination of everything and not really a useful comparison, when there were no P&C spaces cars were smaller, car seat designs were different, the advice to rear face children wasn’t there, less people had cars so car parks weren’t as full.
Despite what people suggest there was clearly a need or at least desire for them hence the uptake from the majority of outlets to include them in their planning.

All the supermarkets and council operated one’s near me have plenty. Rows and rows of them. I’ve never had an issue finding a disabled parking spot since we’ve had an Blue Badge, but regularly struggled to find a P&C one when they were small due to pratts in white vans and unaccompanied women in range rovers wanting wide parking spaces.

Clearly depends on where you live.

She was a cow. End of. How nasty of her.

I'm sorry that happened to you xxx

Hasty response but this story made me so so bloody angry

No one CHOOSES to be disabled. Given the choice they'd rather not need to use any special space at all!!

Parents choose to be parents, though.

I appreciate the need for both groups to have access to such space but I know which one is right to prioritise.

I was always led to believe that in any space that's designated to the provision of parking, there is a legal requirement to provide dedicated blue badge parking bays. Whereas the parent and child spaces, albeit a 'nice to have' are just that. They aren't subject to a legal requirement. All of the supermarkets Iocal to me that I use (as a wheelchair user), would actively encourage a BB holder to use a P&C bay if there are no BB spaces remaining.

Any private land owner can pretty much impose any parking conditions or stipulations he wishes, with the exception of the provision of BB spaces - they are a legal requirement and must be present. Hence, an unauthorised user can, in theory, be prosecuted for parking in one.

As to whether a BB holder could be penalised or ticketed for parking in a P&C space, well, in a privately owned and privately managed car park, then technically yes. However, I don't think any court in the country would side with the management company or landowner if provided with photographic evidence that a P&C space was the only usable space left for a wheelchair user.

There have been occasions when I have used a P&C space because one was available while all the BB spaces were full. But you do have to be prepared for the backlash that can result. Below is my most memorable confrontation - I was left genuinely speechless after this, and for a good many months after, I refrained from using P&C spaces, as I really did start to believe I had been very wrong.

I'd be interested to hear the views of mothers with babies in car seats and with prams:

I returned to my car one day after a short trip in my local Aldi, having had to park in a P&C space, to find a mum with her small baby standing by my car door. I asked her if she could just move along a bit so that I could open my car door wide enough to transfer into the driving seat. That's when all hell let loose. The woman had obviously been stewing the entire time I was in the store, as she accused me of so many things; being selfish, ignorant and entitled are the three that stuck in my mind. She said that she was sick to death of people waving their blue badges around, as if they gave them some kind of superpower that made them untouchable, and why my wheels were more important than her child's.. She then asked me if I had children, and when I said no, she laughed and said that would explain why I couldn't see the inconvenience I was causing and why I was oblivious to the potential danger I was putting her child in. She offered to let me watch her try and get her baby out of the car and her pram out of the boot whist parked in a normal space. I said I would do so by all means, but only if she sat in my wheelchair first, then transferred herself across into the car without using her legs, then folded up the wheelchair and hauled it across her shoulder to store it behind the passenger seat.

All this time, although she was quite forceful in her words, she didn't swear or raise her voice much. I think this is why I talked myself into believing I was the one being unreasonable. It took many lectures from friends and family, and many months before I was ever brave enough to use a P&C space again. Even now, it's only ever a last resort. I will drive round and round a car park to wait for a BB space rather than go through that again!

Legally a private car parking company could invoice (not legally fine) a disabled driver for parking in a P+C space when the blue badge spaces are full. Ethically - what the fuck? If you've got a disabled person in a car who needs extra space, say to move into a wheelchair, have a mobility scooter assembled, or hobble out on crutches or a walker - would anyone in their right mind begrudge or penalise that?

I can't believe that there are parents who are so lacking in common human decency that they'd consider themselves and their kids take priority over that situation and should have the space.
Wait until you're knocking on and getting feeble...

I assumed they could too? Just as on buses wheelchair users rightly take precedence over people with prams and buggies I would expect that when it comes to parking people with blue badges take precedence over people who have a small child with them. How odd that they don't.

I wonder why people seem to see parent and child bays as so necessary now, they really weren't a thing when I was younger. Is it due to the rise in excessively large cars that mean everyone has less space?

Where are these mythical loads of disabled spaces? We usually find there's plenty of free parent and child spaces but not disabled spaces

Only a complete tosser would fine a disabled person for using a P&C place if all the disabled spaces are full.

IMO.

There are usually loads of disabled spaces free and rarely enough P&C spaces, so I put that you are BU. If you have a blue badge, park in the disabled zone.

Less than 5% of the population have blue badges, equivalent to the 6% of parking spaces available; 26% of households have a child under 12 - far more than the 5% minimum (but up to 10%) of spaces allocated for parents with children.

So no, blue badge holders should use the disabled spaces and leave the P&Cs for Ps with Cs. [We have a blue badge for a family member. I would never use it to park in the P&C zone.]

Seems safe and legal only applies to council land or the public highway, not private car parks.

You can park anywhere that is safe & legal with a blue badge can’t you? A P&C space is neither unsafe nor illegal.

They are private car parks, there’s no law that says a disabled badge has priority over what the space is intended for whether that’s parent and child spaces, drop off spaces, or e charging.

I don’t think blue badge legally covers parking in them BUT reasonable adjustment very much does whether with a child or not. A parking company would be stupid to try to enforce a fine because I would be on very risky grounds in that sense.

there are some places I go where the P and C spaces are much better positioned for the safety of ds (16) than the blue badge spaces are so I will always go for them if one is free.

They are on private land so technically you could be fined. I would be surprised if any supermarket does though. It doesn't seem like a very good PR move as it demonstrates that they don't have enough disabled spaces. I never get why parent and child spaces are close to the door anyway.

It depends which is closest to the buildings. Disabled, particularly physically need easy access to the store as well as access to cars. Parents just need easy access to their car.
Supermarkets are cynical and often put P&C near the door as it appeals to families. Families spend more overall.

P+C spaces are courtesy and are not designated in the same way as disabled parking.

You would want to be a cunt of the highest order with serious entitlement issues not to recognise that some people with disabilities have a higher need than P+C for those spaces if the disabled bays are in use but the world is full of all sorts I guess.

Don't be silly, the parent and child spaces are for the husbands of the married single mothers while on babysitting duties. You know while the married single mothers do their shopping.

I wish they'd stop putting the P&C spaces right next to the door. I want them for the width, not the location.

I agree with the poster about needing more disabled parking spaces. Where I live there is just not enough, in the local town centre car parks, especially.

Morally... yes.
Legally... Private landowners can set their own terms and conditions for their car parks. For example, Meadowhall shopping centre you need a pass to park in the Parent car parking spaces, and you need to produce evidence to get the pass.