Fines for selfish drivers? Bravo Tesco!
I AM delighted that Tesco is imposing fines on shoppers wrongly using parent and child or disabled spaces (Mail). My wife, Susanne, and I often take our three-year- old grandson on shopping trips and are amazed at the blatant and selfish disregard for the parking needs of others by arrogant drivers who think they can park in reserved spaces. Imagine a mother with a baby who has to fully open the car door to access the child seat. This is possible in the wider parent and child parking spaces, but not in a standard space if another car is parked alongside. I have written to six local supermarkets about this matter: Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl. Sainsbury’s told me it patrols car parks three times a week, but apart from that there is nothing it can do. It also advised me not to confront any transgressor. Asda and Morrisons agreed with me that it’s not fair, but say there’s nothing they can do legally. And it seems Lidl doesn’t have enough staff to do anything about it. Unless other stores copy Tesco’s example, they should amend the advisory signs at these special parking spaces to reflect what has become accepted behaviour: ‘These parking bays are reserved for the use of parent and child. ‘However, others also entitled to use them are builder’s and contractor’s vans, 4x4 vehicles that are too big to be parked anywhere else, people carriers, husbands who have just dropped off the wife and are waiting for her return, people who are expecting to return to the car with a lot of shopping, prestige cars such as Mercedes, Jaguar, BMW, Bentley, Porsche and Rolls Royce, and any other selfish person who just doesn’t give a damn.’
MICHAEL HOPKINS, Pontypridd.