Supermarket disabled bay - enforceable? (Scotland)

[LuckyFrankie]

Looking for a bit of advice.

 

 

I was at my local supermarket this morning with my 2 year old, who we have just started potty training.

As we entered the car park, he told me he needed a pee. Which, at the moment, means he literally is about to do a pee right now!

 

 

I therefore parked my car in a total rush, and inadvertently parked in a disabled bay.

(I saw the hatched area alongside and wrongly assumed it was a mother and child space).

Took him to the toilet in the supermarket, did my shopping, and came out to find a parking ticket on my windscreen. Grrr!

 

It was a genuine error on my part.

What I need to know is whether this ticket is actually enforceable.

 

 

I have read that disabled bays may not be enforceable on private land,

but there was very clear signage up stating that these spaces are for blue badge holders only.

 

One of my sons is actually registered disabled (deaf in both ears), but he is too young for a blue badge.

I'm not sure whether to appeal on the grounds of the fact that I actually have a disabled child,

or whether just to ignore the letters that will no doubt start to arrive in the coming months and hope that nothing more comes of it.

 

We are based in Scotland, and if it makes any difference the parking company is Horizon.

[dx100uk]

you are in Scotland

 

 

you totally ignore everything

 

 

dx

[Bazooka Boo]

Agree, totally ignore them, expect some begging letters to land on your doormat mind, but they won't know that you've got the correct advice before they managed to con you out of your hard earned.

[silverfox1961]

Hi

Can you name the supermarket please. It may help others if you can find out who the landowner is or who employed Horizon to manage the car park.

 

Just for clarity, the notice to keeper you will undoubtedly get will mention PoFA. This only applies in England and Wales so they cannot chase the keeper nor are you obliged to name the driver.

[ericsbrother]

As said, ignore the notice on your windscreen and if you get a Notice to keeper through the post come back here for advice on how to complain to the DVLA for selling your data when there is no lawful reason for obtaining it.

Do not contact the company in the meanwhile.

[Hungrydoug]

Just to add a relevant point. If the disabled bay is marked in accordance with the TSRGD and has the correct sign, local authorities can now take over enforcement of the disabled bays (and only the disabled bays) on private land and issue valid PCNs to cars in them.This came in 2009 under The Disabled Persons’ Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009.

[dx100uk]

yes but you'll get a PENALTY ChARGE NOTICE for those.

[Hungrydoug]

I agree, and I noted in my post that a valid PCN would be issued. Merely posted the information in case anyone else comes across this thread and was in a correctly marked bay.

[ericsbrother]

Enforcement under 2009 Act only covers very specific spaces and generally will only apply in newer developments as law specifically disallows retrospective application.

 

Can see it being increasingly applied as landowners apply for planning consent that includes parking for the public

but currently not really that big an issue as there is no compulsion for anything other than monitoring.

[Hungrydoug]

I don't know if it's wrong, but my local authority have this on their website which seems to indicate that they actively wrote to landowners to ask if they wanted their existing bays taken over.

[JoeyJoeC]

I don't know if it's wrong, but my local authority have this on their website which seems to indicate that they actively wrote to landowners to ask if they wanted their existing bays taken over.

 

The trouble is, that these parking companies wouldn't make any money if the council issued the fines. They would rather keep it for themselves to make money, it's not in their interest to actually force non-blue badge holders not to use these bays.