Disabled Perth woman frustrated at Tesco parking policy

Oct 7 2011 by Greg Christison, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A FURIOUS disabled motorist yesterday blasted a Fair City supermarket for failing to enforce its parking regulations.

Contacting the PA to vent her anger, the customer – who has asked not to be named – has been left disappointed with the lack of disabled car-parking spaces at Tesco’s Edinburgh Road branch.

According to the complainer, who is a regular visitor to the store, non-blue badge holders regularly abandon their cars in the bays, leaving disabled and elderly shoppers facing a lengthy trek to the store’s doors.

The woman, who suffers chronic asthma and arthritis, said: “I’ve been going to Tesco for years, maybe three times per week and it’s always the same.

“I’ve lost count the number of times workmen and families have parked in the disabled bays.

“It’s not on, I’ve complained because people rely on these spaces, I can’t walk far at all.

“People should only use these spaces if they have a disability. They have signs up there, but they may as well have Mickey Mouse standing there instead.”

Recalling one disturbing incident, she added: “At the end of the day, there are people worse off than me that can’t get a space.

“On one occasion I witnessed an older couple – maybe in their eighties – attempt to drive into a bay but a young family, without a blue badge, beat them to it.

“The man in his forties wound down his window and shouted at him: ‘What are you looking at you f*****g c***?’

“I felt so sorry for him.”

A spokesperson for Tesco said yesterday: “Disabled car parking spaces are provided for the benefit of those customers who need them most.

“We ask customers to be considerate to other shoppers in their use of these spaces.

“Where the use of these spaces is being abused, we ask customers to move.”

Unsatisfied with the supermarket giant’s response, the enraged protestor, retorted: “I think it’s pathetic because at the end of the day it’s their business.

“Why don’t they send someone out every hour to check who is parked there?

“It would only take five minutes. But this is what we’re up against.”