Supermarket car parking again - good news

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Jan 15, 2008 | 12:25 PM
  #1  
Just seen the following story on the BBC website. Way to go Asda !!! Going to contact Tesco, etc, to see when they are going to start doing it aswell.....

BBC NEWS | England | London | Asda parking cheats face £40 fine

Dave
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Jan 15, 2008 | 12:28 PM
  #2  
Why are women like Car Park spaces? Sometimes all the good ones are taken so, when no one is looking you have to stick it in a disabled one
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Jan 15, 2008 | 12:46 PM
  #3  
Oh eck - here we go - pass the popcorn...
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Jan 15, 2008 | 12:48 PM
  #4  
Its thier land, they can do what the **** they like - Don't like it? Don't park there.

Personalyl I think any move to stop people parking in disabled bays that aren't dsplaying a badge is a good one.
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Jan 15, 2008 | 12:53 PM
  #5  
"Special parking wardens began enforcing the scheme in Park Royal on Monday ahead of its England-wide roll out."

Expect them to be getting a load of abuse then.
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Jan 15, 2008 | 12:53 PM
  #6  
Fully in favour, but I think the size of the fine is disproportionate to the actual 'crime' committed.

Quote: Its thier land, they can do what the **** they like ...
How can it be enforced? Can I introduce a fine for people who walk across my lawn?
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Jan 15, 2008 | 12:54 PM
  #7  
Quote: ...may be fined £40...during the trial in Liverpool they were issuing on average one ticket per store per week.

Asda will donate profits from the fines to baby charity
How much are the wardens getting paid then ?
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Jan 15, 2008 | 12:55 PM
  #8  
Quote: How can it be enforced? Can I introduce a fine for people who walk across my lawn?
Well i would introduce clamps, i think thats the standard practice for parking in private land.

I don't know how Asda et al intend to do it
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Jan 15, 2008 | 12:55 PM
  #9  
Can you introduce it? Yes. Can you enforce it? Not easily.
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Jan 15, 2008 | 12:59 PM
  #10  
I dont.

At the local tescos, there are 25 disabled spaces, of which i have never seen more than 5 used(in 4 years of the shop having them), i park in them if they are not used when i take my mum shopping, she had a hip replacement 10 months ago and still has problems walking, but the doctors wont give her a badge as its not serious enough to them!

Is it a crime if i use one so my mum doesnt have to walk far!

The local multistory has a whole floor dedicated to disabled drivers, and the local rag ran a story cos people were complaining that it was way under used!
(average of 8 cars in a 70 car floor, over a week).

Are they over represented?

*flame suit on*
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Jan 15, 2008 | 01:03 PM
  #11  
A whole floor is a bit much but fines for abuse is a good thing. Our local retial park has a Bannatynes Gym and the disabled spaces along the front (meant for the cinema, Reid furniture etc as well) are full of Mercs, Beemers etc and not one with a blue badge. What's the point in going to the gym if you are that idle you have to park right outside the door?

5t.
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Jan 15, 2008 | 01:04 PM
  #12  
Why do 'some' performance car owners use these spaces? To be anti-social? No, because there is 30 free spaces and they are fed up paying out to have car-park dinks removed from their pride and joy, just because some old dear can't open and close her door without damaging something!
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Jan 15, 2008 | 01:04 PM
  #13  
I have no problem with disabled parking bays as long as they double up as parent and child parking bays too as there always seems to be a shortage of those.

Our local Asda already has wardens patrolling the carpark who dish out tickets too for parking incorrectly in the disabled bays or if you are there for over 2 hours.
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Jan 15, 2008 | 01:06 PM
  #14  
I think on the whole it is a good idea. Unless there were absolutely no other spaces available, I don't see why people need to be using the disabled/parent and child bays anyway.
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Jan 15, 2008 | 01:07 PM
  #15  
Quote: the doctors wont give her a badge as its not serious enough to them!

Is it a crime if i use one so my mum doesnt have to walk far!
I sympathise with your Mum, and it isn't a crime. It is, probably (no legal eggspurt) a breach of contract. In our messed up legal system I think simply entering private property enters you into a contract. The property owner must display its terms and conditions, but as long as they do, they can do what they like to enforce their policies within reason.
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Jan 15, 2008 | 01:22 PM
  #16  
Cheers corradoboy!!

Whats the vRS like, when the time comes i need something cheaper to run, a vRS is on the short list, that torque figure is amazing!

Back to topic, if they fine me they will get precisely **** all out of me! i will go to court and deny being there unless they have cctv to prove otherwise!

I can understand warning people, maybe even reporting serious offenders to the cops, but fining people smacks of cashcow to me!!
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Jan 15, 2008 | 01:24 PM
  #17  
If it works the way it said in the article, the fine was only a last resort.
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Jan 15, 2008 | 01:31 PM
  #18  
£40 fine pah..!

Back of a lorry and off to the crusher
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Jan 15, 2008 | 01:36 PM
  #19  
Quote: Whats the vRS like ?
From the very first drive it was eye-opening to say the least. It's no Impreza, but for a small hatchback it is brilliantly capable. Amazing torque makes overtaking effortless (even Scooby's ), a composed, tight chassis makes it composed and rewarding to drive, the fuel economy is amazing, even after mapping. AWD and adjustable suspension would be the icing on the cake. I hear the Audi R8 is getting a 5.5 V12 twin turbo diesel soon, so attitudes to diesel are indeed changing.

BOT
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Jan 15, 2008 | 01:42 PM
  #20  
Disabled parking bays, not a problem.

However why should those who have chosen to procreate be awarded special privileges at the supermarket? It was their choice, no one made them do it, it's not a disease or disability.

The only reason parent and child spaces are there is because some bright spark in the marketing department looked at the figures and decided that families spend the most on their weekly shop. Therefore lets give them special parking bays for their gas guzzling 4x4s and ****ty people carriers as an incentive to make them shop here. Yeah make them a bit wider so it's easier to get push chairs out etc., doesn't matter that they take up half the car park so that the rest of us have to park further away and sometimes struggle to get a space. Of course once one supermarket had done it they all had to follow suit, otherwise xxx supermarket would be seen to be more child friendly than them so could potentially lose customers.

Now there are those of us who see through this bit of marketing and don't give a monkies. If a parent and child space is free for my nice car then why shouldn't I use it, after all it's only a lifestyle choice that says if you can park there or not, and in my book that's discrimination. So I'll continue to use them. If they try to fine me I'd like to see them try and enforce it. They do not have the power to issue fines. Don't think they would like the bad PR that would ensue if they tried to take me to court over it. As for wheel clamping, that's never going to happen, they value the customers to highly regardless as to whether you've parked in the wrong spot.

So stuff 'em. We want special parking bays as a reward for those of us who have chosen not to bring some chavvy kids into this world (yet!).
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Jan 15, 2008 | 01:45 PM
  #21  
Sounds like an amusing drive, bet you caught out a few people with those figures!!

I bet the build quality is good too!

Get some interior pictures on my scooby, that was a big selling point for me, the seats and satnav look lush compared to my scoob, and my previous passat for that matter!
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Jan 15, 2008 | 01:46 PM
  #22  
It is very difficult for private car park operators to enforce parking fines. They will get details of the Registered Keeper from DVLA and then write to the Registered Keeper asking for them to pay up. However the car parks contrct is with the driver at the time of the offence, and there is no obligation on the keeper to say who was driving.

Without CCTV evidence or similar the car park operator does not know who was driving.
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Jan 15, 2008 | 02:00 PM
  #23  
With the introduction of online shopping, there is no need for supermarkets to have parking spaces at all
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Jan 15, 2008 | 02:09 PM
  #24  
Considering supermarkets are massive these days, surely disabled people have to travel pretty far when they're inside the place, so whats the big deal having to travel to get there. I'm an old meany, I know.
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Jan 15, 2008 | 02:28 PM
  #25  
It isn't travel, it is also the reason that parent and baby spaces are needed. Chances are a disabled person - just like someone trying to load a baby into a seat - will need to open the door as wide as possible. It isn't so much the travel as the ease of getting in/out of the car int he first place. Particularly if you need to position a wheelchair by the car.

5t.
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Jan 15, 2008 | 02:32 PM
  #26  
My thoughts exactly. The carpark outside my work has a small number of disabled and parent and child spaces, but they are furthest away from the entrance. It isn't so much about where they are placed, but that they are wider bays.
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Jan 15, 2008 | 03:25 PM
  #27  
I wish they'd do 'I'd like to keep my car ding free' spaces and also 'I'm a bloke, I know what I want, where it is, have cash in my hand ready to go, I'll be 5 mins tops' spaces!
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Jan 15, 2008 | 04:17 PM
  #28  
Why is a woman like a car parking space? Because all the good ones are usually taken and sometimes, when nobody is watching you have to put it in a disabled one
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Jan 15, 2008 | 05:07 PM
  #29  
Well Asda shafted me two years ago, i was directed to park in a diasbled bay by an Asda employee a few days before Christmas because there was no other available bays.
This was fine and acceptable for them until a few days after Christmas i went back to Asda and again the car park was full so i parked in another disabled bay even though there was no employees telling people where to park.
I came out with my shopping to find i had a yellow sticky fine on my windscreen. I tried to dispute this with the ticket office and got a snotty reply back basically saying tough **** pay up.
I have never done it since but why they feel the need to have more disabled bays than disabled customers really p1sses me off
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Jan 15, 2008 | 05:13 PM
  #30  
Quote: Well Asda shafted me two years ago, i was directed to park in a diasbled bay by an Asda employee a few days before Christmas because there was no other available bays.
This was fine and acceptable for them until a few days after Christmas i went back to Asda and again the car park was full so i parked in another disabled bay even though there was no employees telling people where to park.
I came out with my shopping to find i had a yellow sticky fine on my windscreen. I tried to dispute this with the ticket office and got a snotty reply back basically saying tough **** pay up.
I have never done it since but why they feel the need to have more disabled bays than disabled customers really p1sses me off
The correct course of action here would be to wait until you received a reminder from them then write back with a very firmly worded letter denying you have never even visited the store in question and that you will be unlikely to visit any Asda stores in the future unless the matter is resolved to your satisfaction.

I don't however support parking in disabled spaces and I don't believe you can have any idea what number they need to provide.
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