Drivers in the North West are wrongly taking advantage of parent and child parking spaces, leaving mums and dads battling to find spaces with young children in tow.
A new investigation by Confused.com reveals that more than one in ten parent and child parking spaces in the North West are being misused . Researchers monitored dedicated spaces in supermarkets to find a shameful number of people misusing them – in fact, 11% of bays were being used by people without a child. And Confused.com isn’t the only witness to this behaviour. Staggeringly, more than seven in ten drivers in the North West have witnessed a parent and child parking space being misused.
This is an issue that is widespread across the UK, as the investigation revealed one in four parent and child parking spaces are not being used correctly.
Further research has found that there’s confusion around the use of parent and child parking bays. Can you park in them regardless of whether you have a child with you? How old does your child have to be before you have to stop using the spaces? Almost one in six UK drivers say the rules around parent and child parking bays are confusing. To clear up this confusion, Confused.com has compiled the guidelines for some of the top UK supermarkets so people can be confident they’re adhering to the rules.
One in 10 UK drivers who don’t have children under the age of 12 and weren’t travelling with a child at the time admit to using a parent and child dedicated bay. But confusion around the issue can’t always be blamed, as many seem to have motivation for flouting the rules.
The misuse and confusion about parent and child parking bays is having a real impact on parents. Like disabled parking bays, parent and child parking spaces offer drivers with young children extra space and a spot closer to the store. This is to give them room to access car seats or buggies without the risk of smashing into the car next door, or to make crossing the road with young children that bit safer.
But despite this very valid reason for having dedicated parking, nearly a third of parents with a child under the age of 12 were forced to leave a car park because all of the dedicated parking spaces were taken.
But when leaving isn’t an option, parents have no choice but to find a standard parking space. In fact, nearly two thirds noticed someone misusing a parent and child parking space, which led to them having to park elsewhere.
More than half of parents surveyed said they struggled to get their child out of the car due to a lack of space. But this isn’t the only struggle they face when parking in standard spaces, as their child’s safety can also be at risk. One in four (24%) parents who had to park elsewhere witnessed a car speeding, which put their child at risk. Nearly one in three (30%) even had to carry their child across the car park because of traffic.
Given the seriousness of some of the situations struggling parents have faced, there are many drivers out there who want to see culprits penalised. In fact, more than one in five are confused as to why car parks don’t fine drivers for taking advantage of parent and child parking spaces. A further one in four think all private car parks should issue fines to drivers who misuse a parent and child parking bay.
However, the issue doesn’t always lie with the culprits, as half of parents don’t think the parent and children parking facilities in their local supermarket are adequate. And this is echoed in the fact that more than one in four have left a car park because there weren’t any dedicated parking spaces at all in the car park.
Amanda Stretton, motoring editor at Confused.com, says: “Parents face battles every day and trying to find parking at the local shop shouldn’t be one of them. Although, given the number of people misusing parent and child parking spaces in the North West, no doubt that parents in the region are left without a suitable place to park.
“What is clear is if you aren’t travelling with a child you shouldn’t be parking in the dedicated spaces and instead save these for the mums and dads out there who need the space.
“For us parents, knowing the point at which we should be giving up these spaces is quite confusing. How old is too old for our children to be using a dedicated space? To help parents out, we’ve spoken to some of the top supermarkets on their rules to create a handy guide to parent and child parking.
