WIBU to park in a disabled space?

[FairfaxAikman]

Ordinarily I wouldn't dream of it.

Our local supermarket closes off half the car park with barriers overnight to deter boy racers. It doesn't reopen until after 8am. ALL of the parent and child spaces are in the closed off side.

DS is still small enough to be in his car seat. In the past if I've arrived before 8am I've parked in a normal space but every time I've ended up with someone next to me, making it hard to get DS back in.

There is a row of 10 disabled spaces, all empty. WIBU to park in the furthest one from the shop?

Pregnancy is not a disability, but it can be disabling.

Pregnancy is not a disability, but it can be disabling.

How is that relevant? Pregnant or not, you can’t park in a blue badge space without one.

Why do people start these threads then get shocked when they're attacked and called entitled? WHY? 🤣🤣🤣

Who’s shocked? back

Widow - that statement wasn't aimed at the OP, it was aimed at the ableist person who seems to think that pregnancy requires special treatment in car parks (it doesn't) and that baby seats don't fit out of car doors (they do).

I'm not entitled in the slightest. I have no intention of using disabled spaces but it's pretty crap that the store's solution while the P&C are fenced off is "use the disabled spaces".

Otherwise the alternative is potentially getting blocked in as the remaining car park is small, at least a third of it is taken up by (presumably given the lack of other customers I saw inside) staff cars and some people seem to feel the need to park next to a lone car in a car park (I'm sure there's a name for that phenomenon but I can't think of it.)

So park at the end of the row? Go to a different supermarket? Park outside the car park and walk?
It’s not the stores fault. The person working there wouldn’t have suggested that as a solution if you hadn’t complained. So yes. Entitled.

Yes,YABU.
Perhaps, you may want to raise the issue with the manager?

YABU and the same to those who want to rename some of the disabled spaces

You have chosen a large car - which is your right, to fit your chosen lifestyle - but noone chose to be disabled

Try parking in the far corner, where one side of the car is not adjacent to another parking space

You are far better able to manage fitting in a baby, a car seat or whatever, than someone wrestling with a wheelchair, or their own body which won't work properly

You can twist and turn;
your muscles and tendons work properly
You are not in constant pain

You can also choose to go away and shop at another time,
whereas a disabled person may not have the energy to struggle out again

Fresh and wolfie. How is that entitled? What the OP is suggesting is a sensible compromise. She isn’t saying reduce the number of disabled spaces, just make 8 disabled spaces and 2 P&C spaces available before 8am. There will still be the same number of disabled spaces available!

@Dorsetdays or even bung a couple of P&C at the end of the disabled row.

@Wolfiefan if you read the thread you'd see that all end spaces were taken and that parking offsite is not an option due to being next to a dual carriageway, with the nearest safe space on the other side.

Like I say this would only be an issue before 8am.

I’ve already explained.
Parent and child is a courtesy and not a right.
She went into store and moaned about the lack of parent and child.
Parent and child spaces are separated from blue badge spaces for multiple reasons. Blue badge spaces should be closest to the store. If they’re mixed in with parent and child spaces then people who shouldn’t be parking in blue badge spaces will park there.

The store is totally in the wrong to tell you to use the disabled spaces
They won't let you off your fine if you are caught

Ask if they can rope off the spaces more intelligently, with more roped off areas,
so the P&C spaces are made available but NOT reducing the number of disabled spaces

Perfectly possible that an insomniac with a disability might want to shop v early like you, when the shop is less crowded and they don't have to queue at the tills

So don’t shop there before 8am?
Or shop elsewhere?
Etc etc.

Adding a couple of P&C would be fine, so long as all the disabled spaces are kept available

The OP has already explained that the barrier was part of the planning permission so it can’t be moved.

I genuinely don’t see what the issue is to have 8 disabled and 2 parent spaces available before 8am. Sounds like the supermarket have offered a solution whilst they hopefully address the issue.

but is it actually illegal to park in a blue badge parking place without a badge in a supermarket car park?

Simple. No it isn’t, BB’s are only valid in public areas/bays. However the landowner can pretty much set their own rules (reasonable) so they could still issue a fine.

When I had my children there was no such thing as P&C spaces and somehow I always managed to get me and my children in and out of the car without major trauma.

The amount of posts started on MN about P&C spaces makes me wonder just how these people manage when they park somewhere without them. Do they just turn round and go home again?

No one who doesn't have a blue badge should park in a disabled space. Getting a small child out of a car does not compare with someone with a disability getting themselves out of their car.

This is the problem with P&C spaces. People become so used to them that they think they're same as disabled spaces, so what harm would it do if we just took two away, eh? It would be the start of a very slippery slope where people think as it's ok to use them prior to 8am, that wouldn't matter at 10am, and after 6pm would be fine and what disabled person goes out on a Sunday so they might as well park in one then! Do you see how it would snowball?

I've had a hospital appointment this morning almost every other car in the disabled car park didn't have a BB. Fortunately I can't drive as far as the hospital so my husband has to take me, and he waited 40 minutes for a space after he dropped me at the door. I can't walk from the main car park, and I doubt many disabled people can, but the selfish twats parked in the disabled bays don't think about that and nor do they care.

There's never an excuse for parking a BB space unless you have a BB.

No ones saying BB spaces should be removed though.

Just that it would be sensible to have a couple of P&C spaces available me as well before 8am.

She went into store and moaned about the lack of parent and child.

No, she mentioned the issue of them all being blocked off. The "moaning" is an embellishment.

Do they just turn round and go home again

Exactly pigs. No, they park somewhere else because they can.

Sadly for me, I do have to turn around and go home if the disabled spaces are taken as I physically can't get into my wheelchair.

To PPs saying we managed without many moons ago, the problem is cars have grown - a Yaris is still bigger than an original Mini - but spaces in general have not.
I could get DS out of my fathers Morris Traveller far more easily than my estate (if it had isofox) as it's proportionally narrower and thus has more space leftover between the lines.

Another poster told the OP to raise it with the manager but when she does another accuses her of moaning. Feels a bit like the OP can’t win.

The OP hasn’t once suggested BB spaces should be removed, just that a couple of P&C spaces are also made available.

Sounds like there are generally disabled spaces available when the OP shops early otherwise she wouldnt be told to use one by the store so clearly having 8 available is a reasonable compromise.