Actions speak louder

With more supermarkets actively policing and imposing penalties against bay abuse, Helen Smith says disabled people are also acting to stamp it out

Last month the Baywatch survey was carried out and I hope that, like me, you made your way to your local supermarket armed with your pencil and survey form.

I’ve always taken part in the Baywatch survey in past years and I’ve always found plenty of cars parked in disabled bays without badges to record. It always seemed as if, despite all the efforts of the Baywatch campaign, nothing changed.

But this year was different.

My local store, which is a Sainsbury’s, was actively policing its bays and handing out £50 fines to anyone parked without a Blue Badge. Unsurprisingly it meant nobody was parked in the disabled bays who shouldn’t be.

For the first time ever since I started taking part in these surveys, there was no abuse to report.

Disabled people have always felt that providing accessible parking wasn’t enough in itself. Unless bays are actively policed and the spaces kept free for disabled people, parking remains difficult.

In June 2008 the Trans­port Select Committee’s report on the Blue Badge scheme stated that “Under the Disability Discrimination Act, service providers have a duty to make their services accessible to disabled people and this includes, where appropriate, the provision of disabled park­ing bays.”

However, the Committee was unsure whether or not an operator who provided disabled parking bays but did not police their use would be complying with the Act.

This question has now been answered, in a case that is still subject to reporting restrictions, after a disabled driver success­fully took a supermarket to court for not policing its bays. The civil court ruled that by not policing the disabled bays on its premises, the super­market was failing to provide people with access to goods and services as specified in Section 19 of the Disability Discrimination Act.

Because the disabled parking bays were not kept clear for people with disabilities, disabled people were unable to park near the entrance and had to struggle to get to the store.

The driver also received a Section 21 order, requiring the supermarket to change its practice. The store now employs a 24-hour parking attendant to monitor the disabled bays.

A spokesman for the company that represented the disabled driver said: “This is a great victory for levelling out the playing field for people with disabilities. This will undoubtedly open up the floodgates for cases against supermarkets across Great Britain.

“Finally, the voice of one person has been heard and the right outcome has been achieved”.

As yet not all super­markets are policing their bays and fining drivers who park improperly. However, the company concerned says that since this case it has received claims from disabled people across England and Wales in respect of abuses at Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. It says that these cases are ongoing and that county court claims will be issued in the near future.

From my own experience at my local Sainsbury’s, fining really does make a difference and hopefully, with the result of this claim, other parking providers will be “encouraged” to take action. After all, those who choose not to may have to face the consequences.