Has anyone else encountered difficulties finding vacant disabled/Blue Badge parking spaces?

Thanks for your thoughts. I mailed via Facebook as it would have meant sending lots of tweets to get my point across on Twitter. Their 140 character limit can be a nuisance at times. No I haven't got a postal address for this company and if I don't hear from them I may as you say decide on a letter. As I said, whatever progress I do/don't make on this I will update here. Thanks again for your suggestions. Amanda

Your very welcome! If I can help you in anyway just let me know via P.M

Amanda2 wrote: Thanks for your thoughts, I mailed via Facebook as it would have meant sending lots of tweets to get my point across on Twitter. Their 140 character limit can be a nuisance at times. No I haven't got a postal address for this company and if I don't hear from them I may, as you say, decide on a letter. As I said, whatever progress I do/don't make on this: I will update here. Thanks again for your suggestions. Amanda

Thanks a lot, that's very kind of you.

I understand your dilemma, I have found that big company's have to pay for disabled spaces in public car parks and they are reluctant to spend more as I expect they are charged a good bit, they told me that when spaces are full to walk the extra distance from a none disabled space, that is the answer I get from a good few companies

I was really interested to read your mail, I've been unable to understand why M&S have been so disinterested/hostile to my suggestions to change a few able bodied spaces to disabled ... however if they too are paying extra for disabled spaces this would answer the mystery!

I think asking you to walk further from an able bodied space is deplorable.

I FOUND THIS DOING A SEARCH

The BSI British Standards, "Code of Practice for the design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people", recommends that commercial premises with designated off-street parking have one space for every employee who is a disabled motorist, plus 5% of the total capacity for visiting motorists and a further 4% should be enlarged standard spaces.

This is a code of practice not sure if it means a legal requirement

Thanks a lot for that information. I'm going to print that off so I have it to hand the next time I pursue M&S over this. I too was unsure whether a code of practice is equivalent to a legal requirement so I Googled it and found the following: 'Approved codes of practice supplement and support regulations. Although it is not a statutory requirement to follow them, they may be used in criminal proceedings as evidence that a statutory requirement has been contravened. However, a failure by a duty holder to observe a provision of an Approved Code of Practice does not render the duty holder automatically liable in criminal or civil proceedings'. So I think it's pretty clear that anyone like M&S would want to avoid being seen to contravene a code of practice, however I have found that my positive assumptions about M&S in this matter have not been matched by their attitude!. I must say that all their disabled spaces are enlarged spaces and of course in general you don't see many disabled spaces that aren't wide enough for a wheelchair to be loaded on/off your car. It's interesting that 9% is the figure which should be given over to visitors for disabled parking. I have noticed that M&S does seem to provide less disabled parking than the main supermarkets though of course I'm not sure whether M&S are providing less than 9%. Anyway all this has given me a lot of food for thought and I shall certainly give it all some thought, thanks again.

Let us know how you get on as this may help others in the same position as you in the future. This has become a very interesting post!! :ohmy:

Thanks for your post. I will certainly keep you up to date on this.

As I may have posted previously: the Council were helping me contact the parking co. and the Council always replied the same day that I contacted them however although it is now more than 3 weeks since I last contacted the Council I have still not heard from either the Council or the parking co. The Council always took a keen interest in this matter so I'm convinced that the reason that I haven't heard further from them is that they too are still unable to obtain a response from the parking co. I'm still thinking this whole matter over but I seriously doubt I will get much further with it and so may reluctantly have to accept that I won't be able to take my complaint any further.

Thanks for the Information.

I am in New Zealand I should not take my cane to get my mobility parking space which i have permit for