to think disabled people should be able to park in P&C spaces if the disabled spaces are full?

[nappyaddict]

Someone I know today was moaning about an "old biddy" who had parked in a P&C space because there were no disabled spaces left. Now I actually have a blue badge for my DS who has no sense of danger but I only use it in car parks where we can't park near a footpath. If we can park near a footpath in a normal space then I will park there and put reins on him or hold his hand.

I just think it's a shame that people would rather an elderley person or disabled person struggle than offer them their P&C space!

The P&T spaces in my local supermarket (right up at the door) are widely ignored because, over the years, people have got fed up of:

Parents with 6 and 7 year olds using them

Parents parking in them and then one parent going into supermarket and the other sitting in the car with the kids

Spoilt brat parents with a sense of entitlement berating elderly people for parking in them

So, as I said, most people just ignore the signs now and use them. Complaints to the security man are met with shrugged shoulders. I'm not surprised really. There are always some people who will abuse a privilege and ruin it for everyone.

Sorry but 55kg in a rear facing seat??

Belgium has quite strict disabled parking laws too. Our local supermarket has one P+C space (big pink rectangle with a white dummy sprayed on it) but around 12 disabled spaces.
Where DD was born, P+C spaces hadn't been invented (doubt they have now TBH) if I was struggling to get her into our gigantic car, I would reverse out enough to open the back door.
I really should be problem solver of the year I think.

Riven that's what I was getting at!! My DD1 who is 12 is NOWHERE NEAR 55kg

That has to be a typo- maybe they meant 55lbs which is about 25kg, I think that's about the limit for most rear facing seats.

hahaha ridiculous stereotypes always pop up in these sort of threads 'they parked in a disabled spot in a sports car' (cause you cant have a sports car if you are disabled- its the law see)'they didnt look disabled' (because you need to be a double amputee to be disabled clearly) arggghhh it just shows how some people are still so ignorant to disabilities in general

it's 15 i think, or 18

YANBU
I think disabled and old trumps young with baby everytime! In terms of bus/train seats, parking spaces etc

However heavily pregnant trumps old and not doddery

Sorry it's 25kg (55lbs) rear facing but the harness goes up to 80kg and a height limit of 5 foot 3. So it will be when he can do the 5 point up harness up by himself. I often don't park in P&C or disabled though. If there is good pedestrian access and emptier elsewhere I will park there cos DS is still safe walking to the supermarket and I still have enough room to get him in and out.

YANBU. TO be honest I was rather shocked when I turned up to our local Tesco (we have just moved and this was our first time - the place is a giant out of town Tesco Extra) only to notice that apart from a small set of 4 spaces right by the door, the P&C spaces were closer to the shop than the main bank of disabled spaces. Me and DP were very to say the least.

I mean while I am glad to have the extra space to get LO out of the car etc and be a little bit safer as not having to walk across the car park I don't see this as a neccessity like a disabled space!!!

In most cases Yanbu, but...

I saw the other day, a glamorous old hag pull her chelsea tracker into a disabled space at the front of an out of town Laura ashley, run in, and I mean run... There was NOTHING disabled about her, she had urgent business in the skirt section to attend to and said f*ck it to the rules... Whilst if I had parked in that disabled spot with my baby I would be sure to be flamed by some interfering old codger

As it stood, I didn't get a parent and child space, as they were all taken too, by people with teenagers, so it works both ways, perhaps the 2 could be combined as too many times I have had to carry the baby round as sone idiot has parked so poorly I cant get my car seat out

If you combined the two it would mean parents with children in tow would have equal rights with disabled people to the set of parking spaces. That wouldn't be right. There needs to be specific spaces for disabled people only.

I had a similar problem this morning. A studenty type in a floppy hat darted into the last remaining P&C space right in front of me. I was already hopped up about a separate parking-related issue, so as he sprung merrily from his car, I rather leaped from mine.

"How many children have you got in there, then?" I asked him.

"None," he replied, "but I've got a bad foot if that helps."

"There's a vast sea of empty disabled spaces," I pointed out. "Why don't you use one of those?"

Well, his foot was evidently not bad enough to prevent him from executing a J-turn and screaming off across the car park like Ray Doyle... watched by a biggish woman and her doughy, sour-faced mother, who had just arrived, sans children, to load up the car in the very next space.

"I haven't got any kids, either," remarked the biggish woman. At which point I'm afraid I said a naughty word.

The question of whether stores should provide P&C spaces is entirely irrelevant. They do provide them, and as a rule they mark them clearly enough that there's no excuse for anyone else (or at least anyone able-bodied) using them - particularly when there are other regular-sized spaces available.

However, if there are no free disabled spaces and someone who would otherwise be entitled needs to spill over, then no, YANBU.

The local store I use seems to have I good layout. Disabled spaces closest and no road to cross, normal spaces rights by the front entrance but you have to cross traffic, then parent and child along the front of the store. So further away from the store entrance itself but no roads to cross.

YANBU

People with blue badges should be able to park in any space that they can access if the blue badge spaces are full. I would never begrudge someone with a blue badge for using a P&C space (although it is nice if they are considerate and park in disabled spaces if they are available), or an elderly person with mobility issues, anyone else with mobility issues, heavily pregnant women etc. I only have issues with inconsiderate people who are perfectly able to park in a standard space but take up a P&C space when they have no children with them.

I'm not a driver, and only go to the supermarket by car if I'm with someone else, which is fortunate as there have been several occasions when they've had to reverse out of the space so I can load DD into the car (previously in her infant carrier, now into her car-dwelling car seat) as there hasn't been enough room in the standard space to get her in. I have massive sympathy for mums or dads who are alone with LOs and can't back the car out when people have parked so tightly that they can't get a car-seat through the gap!

Personally I wouldn't care if the spaces were miles from the store, its the width that counts, but a pathway to the shop is handy so LOs can walk safely, and trolleys nearby helps (I have fond memories of lugging DD in her car seat accross a whole carpark when she was a week old and I had an open, infected C-Section incision.....)

Able bodied people parking in disabled spaces when they have no impairment that would prevent them parking in standard spaces is inexcusible.

Argh why do I keep writing kg instead of lbs. 80 lbs!!!