Asda’s mighty fine idea

I’m sure that, like me, many other disabled motorists were delighted to hear that Asda will now be fining people who park in its disabled bays without a badge.

For seven years, the Baywatch campaign has worked tirelessly to try and stop non-disabled shoppers parking in disabled bays at supermarkets but this is the campaign’s first real breakthrough.

But fining isn’t something the other supermarkets are willing to do. Tesco says: “We favour the carrot, not the stick. We don’t believe introducing fines is the right solution as it can pose other challenges and we know from experience there can be occasional mitigating circumstances.”

I wonder how the carrot approach would work for the types of abusers I met while filming with the BBC on the Baywatch campaign last summer. One car loaded with louts pulled into a disabled bay and the group of fit young men strolled into the shop. When the reporter asked why the driver had parked there, he replied: “I’ll park where I fucking well like, so fuck off.”

I really don’t think there is any other way to make people like this stop abusing bays, except by fining. Trying to explain to such people the importance of leaving disabled bays free for those who need them is a waste of time. They don’t care if their parking stops a disabled person from being able to shop but the thought of being £60 worse off might just do the trick.

Although Sainsbury’s is trying to tackle the issue, it too has not yet gone as far as Asda. Sainsbury’s says that unless a customer has a clear mobility difficulty, all it will do is put a notice on a car wrongly parked in a disabled bay. But on my last shopping trip to Sainsbury’s, there were plenty of abusers, no free spaces and not a notice in sight.

Morrisons also still hasn’t committed itself to fining. Morrisons says: “Our store staff are vigilant at monitoring the carpark site. If cars are found to be parked inappropriately, verbal warnings are given to the car owner.” Morrisons may well be vigilant and scored best in the Baywatch survey but verbal warnings don’t work as well as fining.

Asda’s decision has attracted the attention of Liberal Democrat MP Paul Rowen, who has tabled an early day motion calling on the other supermarkets to follow suit. It’s unlikely to be debated in the Commons but it shows that the plight of disabled shoppers has finally been acknowledged by a small number of MPs.

Meanwhile, until the other supermarkets follow suit, let’s all head for Asda.