Opinion : Who is using the ‘parent and child’ parking spaces?

A few days ago my good self happened to park my trusty motor in one of the town centre multi-story car parks associated with a large supermarket chain.

It’s very rare that I leave my motor in a multi-storey these days however it turns out I could get free parking for spending more than £15 in the nearby supermarket.

The car park was quite empty so it was possible to leave my motor in one of the regular parking spaces near to the exit door leading to the lifts into the shop.

Right next to the door were the spaces for disabled motorists and the spaces reserved for ‘mother and child’ parking.

Of course in this age of political correctness ‘mother and child’ could also mean ‘father and child’ and to be 100% politically correct they should really be ‘parent and child’ parking spaces.

While walking to the exit door of the car park I could not help but notice a man, on his own, returning to a vehicle which was parked in a ‘parent and child’ parking space.

However the man returning to his car happened to be on his own, there was no child. So how could he leave his car there?

After doing my shopping, which I was careful to make sure came to £15 but no more, it was time to return to my car.

Before leaving the car park yours truly sat for a few moments in my vehicle to compose myself before driving home.

Sitting there I was amazed at how many drivers were using the ‘parent and child’ spaces but did not have a child with them while the mothers with children were having to leave their cars in spaces a long way away.

From my very rough survey it would appear there is terrible abuse of the ‘parent and child’ spaces in the car park.

Of course these spaces are wider than normal and located closer to the exit meaning they are attractive to lazy drivers who do not consider the needs of busy mothers who go shopping with their children.

It’s about time proper rules and regulations were brought in to make sure these spaces are used only by those for whom they were intended.

Perhaps there should be a local equivalent of the ‘blue badge’ scheme for parents with the issue of special date limited parking badges for display in a vehicles windscreen.

Sadly my good self has never had any children however from what I hear it’s hard enough being a parent and taking a child shopping without inconsiderate people hogging all the parking spaces.

What do you think?

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