To think some busy car parks have an excessive amount of disabled spaces?

[coffeeforone]

Every time I go to my local Sainsbury's, i very rarely find a free Parent & Child space, or any space that is not at the very far end of the car park. I've noticed this more recently as I'm heavily pregnant and have a 2 year old so would love a P&C space. There are only 12 parent & child bays, but there are 18 disabled spaces, the vast majority of them are always free. Given the ratio of parents with young children to blue badge holders in a supermarket at any one time, would it not be more sensible to have, say 12 disabled and 18 P&C bays, or even half & half? I've noticed this in places like IKEA and other big supermarkets too (but haven't actually counted the bays!)

You are very wrong.

Stop counting bays and start being grateful you don’t need a blue badge.

I’m with you OP. Who cares about disabled people anyway. How come they get to park closer than you. It’s so unfair eh?

Fucks sake, don’t you have anything better to gripe about than one tiny thing which makes it easier for a disabled person??

Would you rather be disabled then?

Perhaps you can go and get yourself one of those fabulous disabilities and you too can have a nice big parking space, stop being a dick and have a

This has to be a wind up surely!

Ooh, a goady thread. I like it. Not very original though.

From a disabled person.

Personally I’d get rid of all p&c spaces & make them BB only.

It's simple.

Disabled spaces are a necessity.

P&C spaces are provided as a courtesy.

Are you related to Isabel Oakeshott, OP?

There's a P&C thread running as well.

Ok, I'm fully prepared to be told I'm wrong here. But there has to be a line drawn at which the number of disabled spaces becomes overly excessive. I would say that if more than 75% of them are free most of the time and the rest of the car park is full that's quite a lot of wasted space.

But it's not wasted if someone who is disabled comes along and needs to use it.

OP okay I'm prepared to be told I'm wrong but first I'm going to double down

Ain't no one got time for this shit in RL. Counting designated spaces fgs. On your bike lassie, off you pop.

Disabled spaces are required by law and are enforceable by law, the number of spaces are usually allocated by the size of the store and a percentage of the total car parking spaces as a whole, p&c spaces are a courtesy and not enforceable if you don’t think there’s enough take it up with the store.

In an ideal world nobody who NEEDS a disabled space wouldn’t be able to access one.

Realistically in most car parks you are lucky if you do manage to get one.

I think this is a case of “walk” a mile in someone else’s shoes before trying to make judgement!

Surely there is legislation in place that a certain ratio of spaces need to be disabled?

YABU with the example you have given, so you can get a P&T space.

That being said, where I work there is a large private car park for my work only. There are a number of disabled spaces which I understand need to be provided and why. Yet in my 15 years of working within the organisation and building, I have never seen a vehicle parked in those spaces

You can have my disability if you want, I'm fed up with it now.

Should say it doesn't effect me. There's no shortage of space. Just think its odd they've never been used.

You're more than welcome to mine if you want my diseases too? I'm quite willing to swap lives...

Ffs park further away if you need space you won’t melt in the rain. My children won’t suddenly lose their autism and my dhs leg won’t suddenly grow back. Swap?

As if you actually stood and counted the B.B. spaces!!!

Be very grateful you don’t need a B.B space OP it’s not pleasant!

Almost all of them are almost always empty here too. Which is weird. Because people must be disabled? But, whatever

And in all my local supermarkets there's never a free blue badge space so I have to walk across the car park hobbling or sit in the car whilst my husband goes in.

If the car park has more than 50 spaces, government guidelines dictate that at least 4 percent are designated disabled. There are also rules about max. Distance allowed from store entrance etc. for these.
As PP’s have said, Mum and baby spaces are a courtesy, but the fact they are located far away from the store could be a reason of topography - especially in cases where the land on which the car parking is awkward.
Might be worth trying to get to the shops in quieter periods, if that’s not possible, take it steady and use a trolley with a toddler seat as soon as you find one available...