To park in one of hundred of disabled spaces where there isn’t a single P&C space?

[MickeyMouseShithouse]

I have two children in car seats and I struggling getting them out in one particular multi storey car park local to me. The thing is, this multi story has hundreds.. hundreds(!) of disabled spaces that the majority of are always empty, but not a single parent and child space for a shopping centre?!

Its started to effect my anxiety and puts me off going there but it’s really the only half-decent place I can get anything locally.

WIBU to park in a disabled spot? Not even one close to the entrance, just any of them!

or who do I contact to question why there aren’t any p&c spaces?

it’s so frustrating, I can’t imagine there are a couple hundred disabled people going shopping to the same shopping centre in the same day.. but I can imagine there are are least 1 family with a car seat/pushchair!

YABU to ever park in a disabled parking spot and I call out BS to this causing you anxiety. If you miss park over two ordinary parks or better yet order online and don't go out! It's not as if everywhere has parent spaces, how do you manage going out elsewhere?

I had a double prolapse & 4th degree tearing during childbirth there is no way I could have held my newborn as well as took care of myself. Of course we need disabled toilets, car parking etc. both people can struggle with the same issues. I have used a disabled toilet once as I had no other choice, I was aware I shouldn’t have but there was no other option.

This. I can't believe anyone would think it's ever ok to park in a disabled spot

I hope you do come back with a photograph showing '100's' of disabled parking spaces OP. I also hope you'll tell us where this place is, so that I can go and shop there, as in the more than 20 years that I have been disabled, I have NEVER seen any car park or store that has that many disabled spaces, and as a previous poster said, if I can't find a disabled bay I have to keep driving around until one does eventually become free, or go home, as I simply don't have a choice, which you clearly do. However, to be kind, I think it sounds like you need counselling, as if taking your children out causes you enough anxiety, that you would even consider parking in a disabled bay, then you have some serious problems, which you really need help to overcome, before you pass your anxieties on to your children. I say this, as when I was a young mum I was scared of doing so many 'grown up' things, and then one day I realised that my daughter was picking up on this, so from that day forward, I put my 'big girl' pants on, and buried my fears in order to protect her from suffering too.

THIS! ^

Some posters on here need to get a grip. How the hell do they think women with babies/small children coped before bloody parent and child spaces?!

I despair for humanity at the sheer entitlement of some people! I'm out. This thread's giving me the rage.

Here here
if you have babies in prams you’ll be jailed if something happens to them whilst you’re going to the toilet.
Damned if you do damned if you don’t.

Ps. When using the disabled toilet I never once encountered a queue outside.

I despair for humanity reading some of the comments on here about how bad it is having too many disabled spots. You people better hope that karma doesn't catch up to you. Smh.

What did people do before there were P&C spots?? How did anyone ever manage!?

Parking Spaces are no longer fit for purpose. They need to be bigger with a buffer zone between each car (the Lidl near us had this and it is excellent).

Cars are much bigger than ever before and at times it is nearly impossible to get out without holding the door so as not to hit the car next to you. Even less so when heavily pregnant/getting children out.

How about you swap lives with a disabled person and then see if you still think that. Think about what you are saying for a moment. Having a child is not a disability, I'm actually embarrassed for you

Either you have misunderstood @ilovesooty 's post, or I have.

Hundreds of disabled parking spaces? Sure Jan.

Sorry, I was agreeing with sooty, it was the person she was replying to that has given me the rage. I'm still angry 😠

I think it's more people need to stop buying ridiculously huge cars that they can't park and even struggle to drive in. I look around now and about 80% are huge SUVs. I drive a normal car and it's never an issue for me. It's only an issue when I'm in the middle of two big cars.

Then you haven't been in the Grand Arcade car park in Cambridge then

Cars were not as wide years ago. Size of spaces hasn’t increased with car sizes increasing. So that’s how people managed! 😉

Apparently in the U.K. there are plans to change the guidance on the size of car parking spaces, it’s a problem and is being discussed by our ministers!

No worries. I was perfectly happy to accept that I was the one who misunderstood. :)

All cars are getting wider though, wider than when the sizes of car park spaces were decided. And now lots of places make them smaller than that old guidance to squeeze more cars in.

I'm not sure that that's entirely true, given that road sizes haven't changed. DS has a 1949 Alvis that is certainly wider than my hatchback, for instance. Yes, more people are choosing to drive people carriers and Chelsea tractors, but I'm not sure that that's going to continue given fuel price inflation. If that is what people choose, I can't see why the layout of car parks necessarily needs to change radically in order to accommodate them.

I don't but there is disabled spaces, and separate parent and child ones for a reason... I'd never park in a disabled space, so it should be respected both ways no?

It's been 18 years since I last had a newborn and it's cracking me up that the M&B vs Disabled car spaces argument is STILL happening! Apparently parenting boards will be stuck in this fight forever! 😂

No. You are ridiculous

I am also calling bullshit on a car park having "hundreds" of disabled spaces.

Then you haven't been in the Grand Arcade car park in Cambridge then

Well then they're very lucky as most car parks anywhere only have a few disabled spaces, mainly occupied by people who don't have blue badges.

It is true.

From driving.co.uk

Car parking spaces have not significantly increased in size since the publication of the Institution of Structural Engineers’ guidance on the topic in 1976, despite the fact that the top twenty best-selling cars in the UK are, on average, roughly 17% wider than they were even in 1998.

Cars have steadily been increasing in size since the time that the current guidance on car parking space sizes was issued in the 1970s.

Even looking at small-to-medium-sized cars, the original 1976 Ford Fiesta was just 3.6m long and 1.6m wide compared to the current model’s 4m length and 1.73m width.

It’s an even bigger case of bloat with the Volkswagen Golf, with the dinky 1974 model’s 3.7m length and 1.6m width comparing to the 2022 model’s 4.3m in length and 1.8m in width.

New cars are exponentially safer than older models thanks to the development of safety cells, airbags, crumple zones and other factors such as side-impact protection. While these all make a car safer, they also make it bigger.

I’ve looked this up and there are 70 designated Blue Badge spaces out of a possible 890 spaces. So, you know, less than 10 per cent, but those annoying disabled people will keep on asserting their rights under the Equality Act 2010. The fuckers should just stay home and leave the car parks and the shops to the alpha able-bodied, a bit like the car parking Hunger Games.