One in five disabled bays abused

Geoff Adams-Spink
BBC News website disability affairs correspondent

Baywatch is disappointed at the lack of improvement

More than one in five disabled parking spaces are used by non-disabled drivers, according to a survey of supermarket and other car parks.

Campaign group Baywatch said it was disappointed there has been no improvement since a similar survey was carried out last year.

Asda and Tesco had the worst results with 21% of parking bays abused, while Sainsbury's had the best figure of 18%.

The supermarkets say they are doing all they can to improve the situation.

Safeway-Morrison made an improvement on last year's figures with 19% of disabled parking spaces occupied by non-disabled customers.

'No excuse'

"Supermarket chains and car park operators are failing in most places to control this abuse," said Douglas Campbell of the Disabled Drivers' Association.

"If some outlets can tackle the problem there is no excuse for those who don't."

The survey of almost 600 car parks was conducted by volunteers for campaign group Baywatch between 10 and 16 January this year.

Parking bay abuse was noted in more than 70% of car parks.

Tesco and Asda had the worst results for abuse of bays

Apart from the big four supermarkets, researchers sent in reports on other supermarkets, hospitals, health centres, railway stations and local authority buildings.

Almost a quarter of disabled bays in such places were being used incorrectly.

And it was in this group that some of the worst abuse was reported.

For example, at a hospital in Welwyn Garden City all seven of the designated bays were occupied by vehicles without disabled badges.

The same thing was observed at the Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil.

And at the railway station, in Hitchin, half of the parking bays were being abused.

Persuasive measures

Tesco says at more than 350 of its stores one member of staff is responsible for the car park including checking on disabled parking spaces.

Leaflets are placed on cars found to be parking incorrectly reminding the driver that they are depriving disabled customers of adequate parking facilities.

The company says it has commissioned research into why disabled parking spaces are abused.

Sainsbury's says that the best way to deal with the issue is by persuading customers to behave differently.

"We will continue to raise customer awareness of this important issue to ensure that disabled parking bays are kept free for customers who really need them," a spokesperson said.

Baywatch campaigners point out that more than 160 supermarket sites are successfully tackling parking bay abuse which puts businesses in a better position to tap in to the estimated £80bn a year spent by disabled people.

The campaign is a collaboration between the British Polio Fellowship, the Disabled Drivers' Association, the Disabled Drivers' Motor Club, disability charity, Scope, and bi-weekly newspaper, Disability Now.