Swansea mum's fury at parking ticket for ATM dash

“by EmmaWood1988
What an absolutely ridiculous comment. You think just because somebody can walk around a shop their not disabled. How do you know they don't have an artificle leg, or trouble walking distances, etc. I think you need to think before you type!!!!”

“Legally she can refuse to pay the ticket as its not worth the paper its written on. Only the Police and Council tickets you need to pay. If unsure google it.

Morally that's a different matter”

“Half the people with dIsabled badges don't even need them, seem to walk around the shop fine, and it doesn't help when disabled park in the parent and child even when there's disabled parking spaces available”

“Homeboy, a relative of the selfish woman are you? Selfish is a fully able person parking in a disabled bay just so she doesn't get a bit wet. You break the rules and get caught then hard luck. The real sad case is you judging all the people you have branded judgemental, oh the irony!!”

“Why are you giving this women space in your newspaper? This is a non story - what did she hope to achieve by going to the papers other than publicity for herself. She shouldn't have been parked there full stop. If she wasn't getting out of the car then she shouldn't even be parked in the parent and child spaces. These are for ensuring there are sufficient space for getting children in and out, not for selfish people to avoid getting their hair wet!”

“Four kids left in the car,with the lights on and engine running, but the most important thing was she didn't get wet! OK it cost her a couple of quid to stay dry, its a good job some one didn't drive off with her four kids, or the parking attendant would have been for it for not stopping them. You just loose faith in the human race!.”

“ij1609 - how did you check her photo on the Blue Badge? did you ask her to hand it over for examination? the photo is on the REVERSE of the badge and must be made available for inspection by an official - not general members of the public - there are heavy penalties for mis-use of the blue badge.

I walk with a stick so it is pretty obvious what the problem is - in contrast - my mother who is nearly 80 has severe angina and bone / spinal problems - but you wouldn't know it just by looking at her.

The Blue Badge does have over-riding powers across a number of parking restrictions and "technically" this could be read to include the use of parent / child spaces.

Part of the problem is that, as another parent pointed out - most parents are not disabled - they just need extra space to get their children in and out of their vehicle safely - yet many car-parks almost alternate disabled space with child and family ones

In reality - the lack of disability of the parents means they don't actually need to be as close to the store and therefore should be in a different area (those parents who are disabled or have disabled children are likely to be covered under the Blue Badge scheme anyway and therefore would be able to take advantage of the disabled car-parking spaces.

If stores erect signs advising they have clamping / fines in force, they are within their rights to enforce them.

Despite all the above debate however - what is clear in this instance, is that the person the article is about wasn't entitled to use either a parent / child or disabled space - but probably would have gotten away without a fine if they had used the family spaces, even though this would have been as much of an abuse of the facility as using the disabled space.”

“What a selfish woman! As mentioned previously she had another person with her to watch the kids for her to run to the ATM. By her parking in the disabled bay, potentially, a disabled person would have to get wet and carry shopping back to their car. Sometimes people don't think about the implications to others of their selfish actions.”

“What about the peaople with mobility cars that have preferred parking in disabled spaces and when it rains they seem to be able to run into the stores as quick as anyone else strange???”

“ive tryed to park in this car park with my 2 year old in the car with me. i was waiting for a parent and child space to become available and when it was cleared a 'lady' pulled in to it causing me to almost have an accident. when i confronted her, her reply was that as she held a diabled badge and all disabled spaces were full she was entitled to park in a parent and child space. when i complained to the store management about this the reply was that nothing could be done as it was a private car. some clarity is need here. it can not be one rule for one and another for another ( the lady in question wasnt disabled and picture wasnt on the blue badge, i checked)”