Charging for parent & child parking

mjgreen60

Hi all

Just wondered if anyone has ever come across places charging for parent and child parking? I parked at a place yesterday which has dedicated P&C places but the signs said that you needed a permit to park there. Fair enough I thought, at least it stops people parking there without kids. I went to the office to get a permit and was shocked to hear that they wanted money from me!!

I admit it was only £1 and so not a hideous amount of money but it is the principle behind it that annoys me. This is for a 'permit' that allows us to use the P&C parking for 12 months but we still have to pay the exit fee for the car park.

The woman in the office said that this fee was an administration fee to pay towards staff to patrol the P&C area.

As I said I accept that £1 doesn't break the bank but it just seems absurd to charge us simply to have slightly wider parking spaces. Is this even legal?

Many thanks

Mj

mrcow

Why would it not be legal?

You're free to park elsewhere should you so wish.

Peanuckle

So you're complaining about a £1 charge for the permit? Did you know that the cost for a blue badge for a disabled person is (depending on local authority) usually £10 a time plus 2 passport photos? That pound charge seems a little on the low side to me. And before anybody mentions free parking it's been withdrawn in a lot of local authorities now, the disabled pay the same rates as anyone else (albeit with an extra hour allowed in some council car parks) and no concessions other than larger bays in most private car parks (NCP etc)

Cat501

Peanuckle wrote: »

So you're complaining about a £1 charge for the permit? Did you know that the cost for a blue badge for a disabled person is (depending on local authority) usually £10 a time plus 2 passport photos? That pound charge seems a little on the low side to me. And before anybody mentions free parking it's been withdrawn in a lot of local authorities now, the disabled pay the same rates as anyone else (albeit with an extra hour allowed in some council car parks) and no concessions other than larger bays in most private car parks (NCP etc)

I have to agree. I think parent&child spaces are a very good thing, but paying a nominal charge for this facility is not too much to ask given that's it's rarely ESSENTIAL (ie you can get by without it), unlike facilities for the disabled.

kingfisherblue

Presumably it costs the company a small amount of money to produce the permit - the cost of paper, printing, and possibly laminating, as well as the time it takes a member of staff to make it. Perhaps this is the reason that there is a nominal charge. It might not cost much to produce one permit, but a large supermarket is going to have hundreds of customers, many of whom will require these permits.

There is also the cost of the staff who check that the cars parked in these spaces have permits, or the staff who read out registration numbers over the tannoy to ask offenders to remove their cars if no permit is shown.

Charging £1 is recouping their costs.

Incidentally, I agree that parent and child places are a benefit rather than a necessity.

liney

mjgreen60 wrote: »

Hi all

Just wondered if anyone has ever come across places charging for parent and child parking? I parked at a place yesterday which has dedicated P&C places but the signs said that you needed a permit to park there. Fair enough I thought, at least it stops people parking there without kids. I went to the office to get a permit and was shocked to hear that they wanted money from me!!

I admit it was only £1 and so not a hideous amount of money but it is the principle behind it that annoys me. This is for a 'permit' that allows us to use the P&C parking for 12 months but we still have to pay the exit fee for the car park.

The woman in the office said that this fee was an administration fee to pay towards staff to patrol the P&C area.

As I said I accept that £1 doesn't break the bank but it just seems absurd to charge us simply to have slightly wider parking spaces. Is this even legal?

Many thanks

Mj

They are not obliged to offer the service, and if they do not cover their costs then perhaps they will withdraw it.

£1 seems more than reasonable. Also remember, 'slightly wider parking' means less customers can park; a real consideration for a smaller supermarket.

cutestkids

I think it is more than reasonable, to be honest a lot of people abuse the parent and child spaces so perhaps this deters people who don't really need one.

McKneff

Where was this car park then, council park or private ie Supermarket car park.
If the latter they couldnt enforce it anyway

fluffnutter

There you go. Parents are so fixated on the idea that they 'need special spaces', they're prepared to pay for them. More fool them, then. <shrug>. A quid seems reasonable for priority parking.

lolavix

Seems more than reasonable to me, why should anyone get a permit for free?

dizziblonde

People constantly whine that P+C spaces aren't enforced - a firm tries to enforce 'em... gets grief for that.

I'd have no issue paying the quid - well, I'd probably just park elsewhere - but I've never been obsessional about P+C spaces as some kind of birthright anyway... handy convenience - yep, some kind of mummy divine right as this generation regard getting a child in and out of a car (or on a bus lol) as some kind of herculean labour - nope.