Sainsbury's and MET Parking

Coupon-mad

rdwarr wrote: »

Sadly the PDF is no longer there but the rest of it was pretty useful. Thank you

Yep that PDF seems to have disappeared but I found this link instead.

That explains a little about the duty upon a service provider to make reasonable adjustments for disabled visitors. That would include people without a Blue Badge but who still have a 'protected characteristic' of a long-term debilitating medical condition that means they need to use a bay close to the Store.

It is not good enough for Sainsburys to say people can use a Parent and Child bay because we know full well that their on-site PPC will ticket cars for that. Also, why should one disabled person be treated less favourably than another? IMHO this approach is unreasonable and leaves Sainsburys and all the other retailers who rely on their PPC signs about 'Blue Badge only' open to being sued. All it needs is for the signs to say 'disabled visitors only' and for the PPC goons to be properly trained to understand that a disability isn't always obvious and isn't JUST people with a Blue Badge or mobility issues.

Does Sainsburys think that people with cancer, ME, learning difficulties, visual impairment etc. are 'not as disabled' as those with a Blue Badge?! Sorry but the Equality Act 2010 does not discriminate like that and a retailer breaks the law if they do!

You can also draw a comparison with how retailers treat P&C bays (which do not even need to be there!). They do not require any badge (usually) and cars are left alone (usually) if there is an indicator in the car of a child - a child's car seat for example, or 'child on board' sticker, toys, you name it there's usually a sign that it's a family car. And they wouldn't suddenly decide the car was 'fair game' if the car seat was upside down (but they do if a Blue Badge is upside down!).

IMHO it could be argued therefore, that there is DIRECT DISCRIMINATION against disabled people because they are not treating them as favourably as their other visitors allowed to use special bays. If they can leave family cars showing any sign of a 'child on board' alone in P&C (gimmick, pointless) bays then they can leave cars alone which are in (legally important) disabled bays, and displaying any sign of disability.

A disabled car tax disc is a perfectly adequate indicator of disability, as is an obviously wheelchair-adapted or Motability car, or an overturned or even out of date Blue Badge, or a clear note on the dashboard about the need and condition - or just the PPC idiot seeing the person struggle out of the car would be enough. As long as the firm/employee 'knew or should have known' about the disability then to harass them and treat them less favourably than other people parked there is unlawful.

Half_way

In order for things to change in the right direction it will take some one to go to court and challenge the supermarkets on this policy, coupled with a well written article in the press, or on the TV aiming the bad publicity firmly at the supermarket.

Unfortunalty, I dont think theres much chance of that happeneing, most people whan faced with a parking charge invoice want it out of the way as soon as possible, with as little fuss as possible.
taking it one step further that is court action against the retailer would in most cases be a step to far.

Then theres the BPA's best frriend in all of this - the press and media, as long as they keep in reporting these charges as fines and penalties, the more the public will believe them to be real, and just how many well written press/medai articles have there been about private parkig tickets?

Kite2010

They will change their mind once they lose in court and have to pay out thousands.

rdwarr

Half_way wrote: »

In order for things to change in the right direction it will take some one to go to court and challenge the supermarkets on this policy, coupled with a well written article in the press, or on the TV aiming the bad publicity firmly at the supermarket.

Well, I'm already sitting on one ticket for a similar "offence" at a different location. I'll see if they follow it up enough for a harassment case.

The other thing to bear in mind is that I'm not the disabled one, it's my wife. So if she doesn't fancy the "fight" it won't happen. Where priorities need defining she'll always be top of the list.

rdwarr

Finally got round to sending a reply incorporating much of the useful stuff received here and on Pepipoo:

Dear Katrina,

Many thanks for your note. Apologies for the delay in replying - we've been on holiday and I also needed to double-check some facts, being somewhat surprised by your response. Please can you ensure that this correspondence is copied to your legal department and anybody who deals with risk management in your organisation? Reasons for that will become apparent later on.

Taking your responses in turn:

"We have received a reply from our internal team"
Was this a team with legal knowledge or one that just creates policies? Unfortunately Sainsburys has run into trouble in the past with this. A prime example was when the High Wycombe store opened and Sainsburys put up notices saying that they would "fine" anybody using a disabled or parent/child bay without meeting the requirements £50. As fines can only be issued by courts, police or local councils this policy was a clear breach of the 2006 Fraud Act (Section 2).

"...which is in line with DFT guidance"
The DFT is quite specific on how the Blue Badge schem operates on private land. It does not apply at all. Refer to Page 6 of the Blue Badge Handbook at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/36876/blue-badge-rights-responsibilities.pdf which states "However, the badge is intended for on-street parking only. Off-street car parks, such as those provided in local authority, hospital or supermarket car parks are governed by separate rules."
There is no DFT guidance whatsoever which applies here.

" If you are registered disabled, you are entitled to a blue badge."
Firstly, what do you mean by "registered disabled"? There is no "register" of disabled people. What applies here is teh definition of disability under the 2010 Equality Act. Fortunately this is quite simple and is stated at https://www.gov.uk/definition-of-disability-under-equality-act-2010. This bears no relationship at all to Blue Badge entitlement (not that that should apply anyway).
You are effectively saying that people with cancer, ME, learning difficulties, visual impairment etc. are 'not as disabled' as those with a Blue Badge. The Equality Act 2010 does not discriminate like that and a retailer breaks the law if they do.

"...you are welcome to use a parent and child bay."
Unfortunately this is also not true. We tried. I had a copy of your previous note on me so felt able to ignore the big sign that said that anybody using one of the P/C bays without a child under the age of 12 would face a charge of £60. However, what we could not ignore was the abuse received from other shoppers who felt that we were "just being lazy" (and worse). My wife was almost in tears after that experience.
So "welcome"? Definitely not.It's also a clear case of one disabled person be treated less favourably than another.

On that point it could be argued therefore, that there is DIRECT DISCRIMINATION against disabled people because you are not treating them as favourably as other visitors allowed to use special bays. If you can leave family cars showing any sign of a 'child on board' alone in P/C bays then you can leave cars alone which are in (legally important) disabled bays, and displaying any sign of disability (such as an obviously disabled person struggling to get out of the car and exhibiting severe difficulty in walking).

In conclusion, I need a reply to the following questions within fourteen days from your "internal" or legal team:

i) Does Sainsbury recognise the Equality Act 2010?

ii) Does Sainsbury recognise disability as defined in the Equality Act 2010?

iii) Does Sainsbury operate a policy/policies that treat people who are defined as disabled accordingly to the Equality Act 2010 different to those who are members of the Blue Badge scheme?

Yours Sincerely,

Stroma

Excellent letter, definitely post the response you get if you don't mind. I wonder if they truly will put their foot in it by that ?

Guys_Dad

Great letter until it came to the end questions. I can predict the answers, as can most readers. it's akin to "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?"

You should have asked.

1. Will Sainsbury re-instruct their Parking Contractors to recognise other indicators of disablement other than Blue Badges (e.g. Disabled road fund licences)?

2. What anti-racist policies do Sainsbury have in place to allow non-UK disabled residents not eleigible for blue badges because of residency to use the disabled parking spaces?

3. Will Sainsbury give an undertaking to have all tickets issued to genuine disabled drivers who may not have displayed a blue badge cancelled?

rdwarr

Those questions came from Pepipoo - I admit they're hard to answer!

rdwarr

I've now had a response to the above letter. It's not good:

Dear Mr Warr

Thank you for your email and for your patience while our team investigated your query. We appreciate your concerns regarding our response and we have passed your comments to our communications team.

Our team has investigated and can confirm that the signs at our Corey’s Mill store have not changed and have been in place for some time. In order to ensure that we make disabled spaces available for those who need them, we do apply the blue badge policy across all our car parks.

We enforce misuse of disabled bays by issuing anyone who parks in a disabled parking bay without displaying a valid blue badge with a £60 parking charge notice. We feel that that this approach is fair and consistent with other private car parks across the country.

If a customer does not qualify for a blue badge and needs a wider parking bay closer to the store they are welcome to use one of our parent and child bays. They should however notify the customer services desk so that we can inform our parking attendants.

We appreciate you taking the time to contact us. We hope this information has been helpful and we hope to see you in store again soon.


Kind regards

Christine Cruikshank | Customer Manager

Not really sure what to do next. They won't budge an inch.

The_Slithy_Tove

rdwarr wrote: »

Not really sure what to do next. They won't budge an inch.

Thank them for failing utterly to address any of your points (as the most recent response is almost identical to the first).

Then hit them with an Equalities Act lawsuit. That might make them perk up.