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!)

And don't let others make you feel like you are wrong just cos you have an opinion that differs from theirs

But the op is wrong . I could have an opinion that all children should do work experience cleaning chimneys, that all women should be SAHP for the younger years, or that it should be mandatory to cut off all man-buns we come across - but I’d be wrong (maybe not about man-buns).

People are entitled to their personal thoughts, but there are a few occasions like this where the argument behind the opinion is completely wrong and unfeasible. The smart thing to do is think it out before having verbal diarrhoea all over the internet.

@user1472651064

How interesting that you post to defend the disablist nature of the thread, whilst continuously spewing insulting terms for someone with a mental health disability.

Because OP was just saying there is more disabled spaces available than PC ones.

Yes, and that is the way it should be .

Sure user is sockpuppeting.

No one can say anyone is wrong. A lot of you probably don't even have any personal experience with being disabled or being with someone/family member who is disabled

@Sisgal I did not insinuate you were untruthful. I am merely surprised that someone with a disabled partner would express that there are too many BB spaces.

I wish any of my local shops or supermarkets had this problem as it is if i can't get a disabled bay i have to not go in as I need to be able to open my door fully to get my prosthetic leg out. Can i have your legs op I'll give you my bb since you seem to think these spaces are not needed.

@Sisgal Oh and I have a family member who has been paralysed from the waist down since 18 and two friends who are also wheelchair users.

Sisgal, don’t be ridiculous . I thought the OP was being deliberately dim and goady, but you’re taking it to another level.

As of 2014, these are the current stats about disability in GB

There are over 11 million people with a limiting long term illness, impairment or disability.

The most commonly-reported impairments are those that affect mobility, lifting or carrying.

The prevalence of disability rises with age. Around 6% of children are disabled, compared to 16% of working age adults and 45% of adults over State Pension age.

If there are indeed lots of unused BB spaces at your local supermarket, maybe they need to consider what else they are doing wrong if only a very small number of disabled shoppers are able to use the store, despite an abundance of accessible parking.

I am disabled sisgal so have more experience than you do since you are only a relative of a disabled person.

@padpara. You live my life then you can have an opinion on what I say.

@windmill. I didn't realise it was a competition. Well done, you win

It takes me about 1 hour a week to park and shop (I’m not disabled). I’m sure most other posters approximately about the same.

I don’t see how anyone can conclude from 1 hour, maybe even 2,3 or 4 hours, shopping and parking per week, that bays are under used!

Waawaawaaa. Grow up love. This is a very disabilist post. So what if you're pregnant with a kid in tow. Thank your lucky stars you and your loved ones are healthy enough you can walk. I have three kids, yes it's harder when you're trying to get stuff in and out the car but for fucks sake you just bloody cope don't you? How on earth do you think mothers coped in the days pre p&c spaces?

To be honest as a mother myself i think there are far too many parent spaces. I don't understand why they're needed or why its more difficult for a parent to push a pushchair a few extra feet. And I use a pushchair. So i suspect those with disabilities think the same thing as there are always more parent/child spaces than disabled spaces.

You live my life then you can have an opinion on what I say.

What on Earth does that even mean? Are we all meant to live through your life now to have an opinion? What happened to ‘no wrong opinion’ or is that just when you believe something? You’re also making huge assumptions that your life is so much more difficult and complicated than anyone else here, and therefore everyone else is being a dick. Well here’s a newsflash, there’s always someone worse off than you, regardless of your situation.

Perhaps they are empty because of lack of support from others for disabled people, or because of the low employment rate of people with disabilities, or the welfare cuts IDS introduced.

There are in my view too many able-bodied people travelling by car for small amounts of shopping.

OP I can sort of see where you are coming from and think some people have been unfairly harsh. Of course there should be sufficient disabled spaces, but I’ve seen a couple of car parks near me where it’s been a bit OTT, and it’s always been in the places where you would expect it to be least needed, e.g. our local leisure centre previously had almost half of its carpark as disabled spaces (it was quite a small car park, maybe 50 spaces). IMO that’s a bit excessive. They have changed it now to just one row of disabled parking spaces, as they were barely being used anyway (there’s about 5 disabled spaces now I think). I think a big part of why it was unused though is because it’s a carpark where parking is still charged at the full rate for disabled people. There is space closer than the carpark, directly on the road outside the leisure centre, where disabled people can park for free with their badge (on yellow lines), so it is unusual to see someone parked in the disabled bays.
Also the Asda near the university I went to about 15 years ago had nearly 1/2 their carpark as disabled and parent and child at one point. It was when parent and child places were becoming more common and they redid their carpark and went a bit overboard. That said I think there were probably a reasonable amount of disabled spaces. The P&C situation was a bit ridiculous though, as it was a supermarket next to a big university and the only people you ever saw shopping there were young adults, it was rare to see families (but obviously disabled people can be any age). They started fining people as everyone started parking in the parent and child once the carpark filled up as the P&C were always empty. I don’t live there anymore so don’t know if it’s changed, but I would imagine so, as it was very unbalanced and didn’t reflect the people who actually shopped there.

I rarely find a free P and C space
As a parent and a decent human being, I'd rather have to park in a normal space somewhere else than count the bays and think to myself 'oh if only I could park in those disabled spaces'
I would always rather drive past empty disabled bays knowing that they're there for people who need them rather than thinking of myself and the relatively minor inconvenience of having to get kids out of the car.

So what if you're pregnant with a kid in tow. Thank your lucky stars you and your loved ones are healthy enough you can walk. I have three kids, yes it's harder when you're trying to get stuff in and out the car but for fucks sake you just bloody cope don't you? How on earth do you think mothers coped in the days pre p&c spaces

Amen to that.
Just hope you never need to use a disabled bay OP

i very rarely find a free Parent & Child space, or any space that is not at the very far end of the car park

Totally understand where you are coming from OP, when my kids were small there were no P&C spaces so obviously I could never go to supermarkets. I had to employ a team of bearers to collect my shopping instead or we would have starved.

Its just so much easier being disabled and having a luxury choice of spaces to pick from.