Should shoppers be fined for anti-social parking?

Oct 2 2007 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

Liza Williams looks at why supermarket chain Asda plans to punish misuse of disabled parking bays

SUPERMARKET giant Asda announced last week it would start issuing fines to drivers who park in disabled bays without a blue badge throughout their Liverpool stores.

The charge of £60 will also apply to those parking in mother and baby spaces without young children and will be issued by a private company, Town and Country Parking, hired by Asda.

A 12-month trial in the city will be extended to other stores throughout the country during the next year.

The money raised by the fines will be used to fund more patrols of customer car parks.

The company is thought to be the first British business to take such a step, and managers say the fine is the only way to prevent the abuse of priority spaces by a minority of irresponsible drivers. They insist their aim is not to catch people out but to keep the spaces free for people who need them.

However, parking campaigners say the use of a private company, driven by profit, will lead to abuse of the system. The size of the fine has also been questioned and people have raised concern about the methods used to trace drivers who have parked their vehicles incorrectly.

Town and Country parking has already begun regular patrols at stores in Aintree, Breck Road, Sefton Park and Walton, all in Liverpool, and in Skelmersdale.

This week, the Daily Post asks: Should shoppers be fined for abusing priority car park spaces?

lizawilliams@dailypost.co.uk

YES: The Case For - We’re determined common sense will guide scheme

by Sue Baird, Asda manager, Sefton Park branch

I’VE always known feelings run high when it comes to the abuse of disabled and parent and child parking bays, but I didn’t realise just how high until this week.

The response to our trial where motorists on Merseyside who abuse these bays could face a £60 fine has been phenomenally positive.

I’ve been thanked by mums delighted someone has recognised that, without extra space, you can’t get a car seat out of a car; blue badge holders who tell me that, without these bays, the weekly shop is impossible, and by able-bodied customers who see that, one day, they might rely on special parking bays, too. At a national level, disabled motorists’ groups and Mumsnet have welcomed the trial and called on others to follow suit.

Of course, our scheme has its knockers and it’s fair to ask why we’ve taken this radical move. We’ve tried many ideas and invested millions in trying to persuade people not to use these bays unnecessarily. We’ve installed talking parking spaces that remind people not to abuse disabled bays; run poster and PR campaigns and we’ve even created a new job, car park hosts, to politely remind people that the bays are reserved for people with special needs.

We’ve won awards and had some success in changing people’s habits, but we’ve not cracked the problem. Customers are telling us that the issue is still there, not just at Asda, but in many businesses.

We don’t think this happens be- cause people don’t care; it’s much more about people just not under- standing why disabled customers and parents need these spaces – they’re there for a good reason.

We’ve shied away from doing this for many years, but if we’re really serious about ensuring customers who need a little extra help get it then it’s something we really should at least try.

We’re quite up-front about the fact that we might get things wrong once in a while but we’re determined that common sense will guide the scheme.

If you’ve dropped your kids at the door, just tell the attendants. If you’re carrying an injury but no blue badge, just let us know. If your kids are older but you’ve still got concerns about them running around a busy car park and want to use a special bay talk to us about it. We’re committed to ensuring that no one who has a valid reason to park in one of these spaces will get a fine.

If the trial is a success, we’d like to roll it out across the UK. We’ll know when the scheme has been a true success when people park where they should and trials like this become unnecessary.

NO: The Case Against - Adding to profits is not the way to do things

by Neil Herron, parking campaigner and founder of parkingappeals.co.uk

ASDA’S aim is laudable, as the company is trying to prevent the misuse of car spaces meant for those who need to be close to a supermarket entrance.

But the company is going to need to exercise a great deal of caution. Experience across the country shows that allowing private enterprises to issue these fines, which are driven by profit and not social and moral responsibility, leads to abuse. Profit incentives could be brought in for workers, and the main aim will be to maximise cash return as much as possible.

The private car parking industry is totally unregulated, and there are examples all over the UK of companies using dubious tactics to catch motorists out in order to increase profit.

However, the major problem Asda and the private company operating in the car parks will face is proving their case and subsequent counter-claims.

The issue is how does the company find out who is driving?

They can find out who the car is registered to by contacting the DVLA in Swansea, but what if someone else was driving the vehicle? The company could end up pursuing a completely innocent party, leaving them wide open for claims of harassment- it could create all kinds of legal problems.

It also asks raises serious questions about data protection - the registered keeper will then know the whereabouts of the person driving the car – it is a hornets’ nest and causes unnecessary intrusion into people’s private lives.

The amount is also excessive as £60 is a lot of money and bigger than many other car parking fines. It is this high simply to get the private company operating the scheme the biggest turnover.

All that is needed is the application of common sense because someone who has parked in an Asda car park in a mother and baby or disabled space has to come back to their car.

A warning from a member of Asda staff would be sufficient, as most people who do park where they are not permitted to will be highly embarrassed when caught and that will be enough of a deterrent. I realise this would take some work and may be difficult to organise but it could be done and would prevent the fining system.

We are going the wrong way about things in this country. Just slapping fines on people when they behave badly, adding to the huge profits of some companies, is not the way to go about things. We should be looking at what is making these people behave this way in the first place. People should not just be governed by the law and by threats of fines, The moral and social fabric needs to be rebuilt, so People think about fellow citizens and the consequences of their actions.

The law should not be used as an excuse to punish people by fining them.

When does it stop?