Well that's for the private parking company/the store to 'police', I'm just highlighting that if a pregnant or nursing mother is ticketed and puts up a defence under The Equality Act then they may have very good grounds.


No, as someone else has already highlighted, the disability protected criteria requires that the condition in question should be ongoing or last longer than 12 months.

So how does a nine month pregnancy fit that criteria?

I don't need to think about it. Doesn't make your made up statement of " yes if for instance a heavily pregnant woman has difficulty getting out of the vehicle, has difficulty walking any distance or needs to be close to the toilets then they may make use of the disabled parking bays" any truer.

Like I said if a pregnant woman parks in an on street disabled bay without a blue badge they will get a parking ticket if caught.

Evo102 you really do seem to be dishing out false information here. The protected status of pregnant women does not include the right to park in disabled bays. Neither does it give them a legitimate argument should they be sued by a private parking company.
They are protected against discrimination. That is totally different to being accorded extra rights and privileges.

I dont think this can be real

Pregnancy isn't a disability so doesn't come under that protected characteristic. But pregnancy and maternity is one of the protected characteristics under the Equality Act.


Not making anything up. Are you stil saying private companies can issue fines?


But we aren't talking about on street, we're talking about private car parks, different situation, different rules.

Granting a reasonable adjustment for a pregnant lady's 'condition' isn't a privilege it is a requirement in law on businesses. I'm astonished you can't see that.

Your original statement was a blanket statement, you didn't specify. In response i gave you the law for both on street and on private land parking covered by Contract Laws. Take a look at the signs in the local supermarket (Contract Laws specify according to rules displayed on the signs) Pretty much every car park i've been in that has disabled parking bays state you have to display your Blue Badge. Your statement that pregnant women should park there without a blue badge is wrong. The Equality Act doesn't mean someone covered by the Equality Act can park wherever they like.

On the matter of how old do the children have to be to park in parent and child when asked most supermarkets stated under 12.

BIB 1 - You needed to go back a bit further in my exchange with the OP, here goes


BIB 2 - You can put anything you wish on a sign, how many times have you seen "trespassers will be prosecuted" signs and still old signs referred to the now illegal practice of clamping and towing? It doesn't automatically mean those signs (or individual clauses) are enforceable or even legal for that matter.


I assume you are replying to someone else, it isn't an issue I've raised.

This is the post i responded to:


As I stated in response to the above post, the information you gave out is incorrect.
As you yourself later posted:

Yes hence the paragraph break to denote a new subject.

So you didn't go back to the start of my conversation with the OP where I made it clear I was referring to private car parks, glad we cleared that up.


Nope it isn't incorrect, suggest you have a look on Pepipoo and the parking forum on Money Saving Expert and educate yourself.

Disabled people need it, there is more disabled people now than 20 years ago like most of the population.. you can't just "fix" yourself..

We look after the disabled in the UK, and should continue it to be a founding principal.

Oh dear you seem to have a problem understanding.
here is the post in contention:

Where you state being pregnant is covered by the Equalities Act 2010 and gives the right for pregnant women to park in disabled designated bays. No spcification given just "they may make use of the disabled parking bays".

Religions are also protected by the Equalities Act does that mean they can park in desabled bays too?

May make use if their 'condition' dictates, yes.

And no I can't think of any of the other protected characteristics (other than disability) that a reasonable adjustment re parking provisions would be needed.

No there are not enough disabled spaces. I am not disabled but my husband is. He cannot walk at all, just transfer from car seat to wheelchair and back again. He has a heavy large power chair which has to be hoisted out of the back of the car, I then manoeuvre the chair to the side of the car and help him transfer onto the wheelchair.

Not only do we need lots of space to the passenger side of the car, we also need a large car to fit both the hoist and the power chair. Many times when we are out we are unable to go where we wish too as there are no disabled spaces.

I tend to go supermarket shopping alone - as it is simpler for me just to use a normal space. However, from time to time he wishes to accompany me - but if we go during the day it's just pot luck whether we manage to get a space or not.

What really frustrates me? When I notice there is a car (or two) in a disabled space without a blue badge

Even someone with a Blue Badge doesn't mean they can park wherever they like never mind a pregnant woman. When I was very heavily pregnant - I could still walk...well wobble

In the style of Viz 'Top Tips':

"Disabled parking spaces make ideal temporary vehicle repositories for Blue-Badge holders"

I think the existential nub of the question is more around whether there are too many cars.

Yes, common sense - go to a supermarket at a quiet time, hardly any disabled/parent & child spaces occupied, use any of them by "Normal people" - so long as there are plenty of spaces left, it should not bother anyone. But go at a busy time, & abide by the rules.
BTW this is not law, but the supermarket's "Rules" it is not the same as a council owned car park, which is usually covered by local by-laws.

Last night I dug out the raw data from my research, some of the figures I have previously quoted were slightly awry. The research was undertaken in summer/autumn 2009. There were 35 sampling days. The actual number of spaces at Ponds Forge car park was 178, and 15 were disabled spaces, i.e. 8.4%. It must be stressed that only cars with blue badges were counted, not cars which were parked in disabled spaces "illegally".

Number of blue badge cars = number of days for that number

6 = 1
5 = 3
4 = 7
3 = 5
2 = 1
1 = 13
0 = 5

Average = 2.25

I also wrote down approximately how full the car park was on the sample days and can confirm there was a correlation, but not as much as you`d think. When the car park was full the average number of blue badge holders in the disabled bays was 3.1.

When I did my research that is not what I found most of the cars in the disabled bays had no blue badge. I admit that has probably now changed, not because drivers have developed a social conscience but because the sports centre now has a parking attendant. I haven`t actually done any consistent research but the fact there are now always a significant number of empty disabled spaces (even when the car park is totally full) would lead me to believe that "illegal" use of the disabled bays has more or less ceased.

I think we`ve been over this. The only thing I`m saying for certain is, when I did my research, there was a excess of disabled parking spaces in Ponds Forge car park. In that car park there are 15 disabled bays, and on average there were 2.25 cars in them. the most ever counted was 6. Would you not say that is an over supply ? Most people, including myself, would say having a slightly excessive number of disabled spaces was reasonable, but not 15. For the car park I studied I`d say 6 would be about right, 7 if you want to build in yet more contingency. What figure would you think reasonable (bearing in mind that car park is usually full, and I mean absolutely full, in the evenings) ?

See post above, I`d be interested for you to give me a figure in answer to the last posed question on that post.

The other point to consider is that it may be a commercial decision. Not so much for sports centres, though they may benefit financially from providing facilities for disabled people; but if shopping centres and supermarkets don't provide adequate parking for people with disabilities those people simply cannot shop there. The same argument applies to parent and child spaces: if you need to take your children with you when you shop, you have to go somewhere you know you can park easily. The rest of us can ignore the parking arrangements and choose our supermarket on the basis of price, quality, range etc, so competition plays its part in the decision whether to "over-provide" accessible parking.

lol how did this continue after my posts?

Oh well.

A 'reasonable adjustment' is something like providing a chair with more back support in the office.

It is not allowing a pregnant woman to take a parking space that a disabled person might need.

I am astonished that you cannot understand that.