so cross-disabled parking spaces..

[narna]

My DD has a heart defect plus other problems so we have a disabled badge.Last night i took DD to the local sports centre which has 2 marked disabled spaces in its smallish car park.
Both spaces were occupied by cars displaying no badge.I ended up parking quite a way from the centre and carrying my DD.
I complained at reception about it and whilst the girl was apologetic she said there is absolutely nothing they can do about it. I was so cross that when we came out and i saw one of the ladies parked in a bay getting back in her car i actually knocked on her window and pointed out the sign to her. Of course she just looked really sheepish and looked down.
Is it true that there is nothing they can do about the selfish pigs that park in these bays without badges?

If thats the case why bother having them ?grrrr it makes me so cross.

Yes it is true that councils can't enforce about 85% of spaces. At least that was the case in Scotland but last year when a new law was passed by the Scottish Parliament which allows £60 fine if u park without displaying badge.

It's very new tho so don't think much effect yet. Only thing I did notice was that some supermarket car parks have put up new signs. Don't kno if you have similar legislation in England.

in most car parks there is nothing they can do.

in town the disabled bays are on double yellows, which makes the traffic warden able to give fines to those mis-using them.

if it's on private land there's nothing that can be done, parking fines can be issued but are not enforceable. If it's on street you can call the council parking bods and they will ticket the car and it is enforceable. Our council has a phone number to call on their website for just this purpose. More info here