Here is the information on other Asda Sites

that do have Disabled parking abuse

Asda Eastleigh, Hampshire

This is one of the larger Asda stores in the south and is just off the M3.  It has a hugh car park to the right of the picture not shown as well as what you can see.  I have highlighted the Disabled spaces and in respect to the overall size of the site there are not many.  This site is run by TCP and shows the same signs as Weymouth stating that they do give out £40 fines.

The person who sent this information said that only one fine has ever been seen on a car but there are always cars abusing the spaces.  No TCP patrol in the area on recent visits when the abuse was taking place and seen by my reporter from the local area.

Conclusion:  Disabled Parking Abuse rife.  No control by TCP.  Unsure if this is Asda or TCP's doing but its not right, is it?

Update 23-11-07, tickets seen on two cars. 

Maybe they are finally clamping down on the abuse here.

Here is one of them.

 Asda St Austell, Cornwall (sorry about the old pic but the spaces are where the arrows show.  This sore now has fuel in the top left of the carpark).

This store on the outskirts of the town has no TCP attendant on site and no signs.  Abuse was rife on my visits earlier this year. 

The store has no complaints book and I was forced to leave a feedback card.  I was told that the store manager read these each day and responded.  I never heard anything and emailed Asda customer services to ask if he would reply.  Here is what they said in the email exchange.  And you may notice that they send the standard email response out to me again:

Hi

I had reason to make two complaints in a week while visiting the St. Austell store in Cornwall with reference to the abuse of the blue badge parking.

I was told by the customer service desk that the Manager would contact me direct to discuss and explain why this was allowed to happen. This was as long as I filled in the store forms.  I was told that the store did not have its own complaints book.

I have had no response from him.  Can you please ensure that this message is sent to the manager of the St. Austell store and that I get a reply from him direct to my complaints. I was told that he reads each one in store daily, so there is no excuse.

many thanks

Kelly

Sent: 10 April 2007 12:49

To: surfingkelly@googlemail.com

Subject: Response from ASDA (Ref #000000015696145)

Thank you for your message.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us, I was sorry to learn of the problems you had when using our disabled parking bays. I have spoken to the Manager at the St Austell Store to ensure he contacts you.  We are very concerned about this problem and try hard to make sure that only disabled customers use these spaces.  We display notices in the car parks and our trolley porters and greeters monitor the bays and approach customers who may be misusing the areas. In many stores we put leaflets on windscreens or tannoy the registration numbers of cars that seem to be incorrectly parked. However, despite all these precautions we are still reliant on customers who are not entitled to use the bays showing consideration for others.

One difficulty is that sometimes customers who are bringing elderly or infirm relatives to the store use the spaces. Even though they may not formally qualify for a blue badge these passengers can often have quite severe mobility problems. It is genuinely extremely difficult for us to differentiate between genuine cases and those abusing the system. Obviously we do not want to offend any of our customers and penalising those who are temporarily infirm would cause upset and inconvenience.

For these reasons we have decided that clamping would not be an effective or customer friendly way of controlling the problem. However to reduce misuse of disabled parking spaces we have carried out the following trials:

The Spacehog trial was introduced in 1996. The trial began in twelve stores and involved fitting all disabled parking spaces with a detector which senses the arrival of a car into the space. This triggers a nearby talking sign which plays the ASDA jingle and reminds the customer that that the space is reserved for disabled customers asking them to park elsewhere. This trial has been so successful we have rolled it out to a further 150 stores

Number plate recognition technology to control access to specially designated parking areas for our disabled customers has been implemented at Eastbourne, High Wycombe and Bridge Of Dee stores with further installations likely in the near future. With the Automated Number Plate Recognition system customers must first register their number plate details at the Customer Service Desk. In order to qualify customers must be a disabled permit (blue badge) holder. Customer details are input into a special PC which is connected to the barrier/camera system. When a registered customer drives up to the barrier the camera reads and recognises their number plate and then raises the barrier to allow entry to the area. Alongside this scheme we always provide additional disabled bays outside of the Automated Number Plate Recognition zone to allow for one-off shoppers who may not be registered.

We are unique amongst retailers in using these methods to prevent abuse of disabled parking and feedback to date has been extremely positive. We are planning to introduce these measures at all of our stores as part of our effort to provide successful solutions to enhance parking provisions for those customers with a disability. In addition we have been undertaking a programme of works across all stores to ensure that we have a sufficient number of disabled spaces and that they are clearly marked with signage and surface markings, this is in compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act.

I am very sorry that your visits to our store have been spoilt in this way and hope that as parking difficulties reduce we can look forward to your continued custom.

Thank you again for taking the time to write to us and I trust that you are reassured about our commitment to providing our customers with above average standards and facilities.

Yours Sincerely

Tracy J&^%$£n

Customer Relations

Many thanks for your reply Tracy and I look forward to hearing from the manager in due course.

However your standard reply to me concerns worries me as this near word for word for a reply I got after a similar issue in Weymouth which I had to take further to Andy Bond via Mark Wright.

Many thanks though and I am sure that your reply will make good reading along with my finds and responses from other Asda car parks that I have visited in the southwest when passed on the disabled society.

Regards

Kelly

I had no further response from Asda customer services or from the manager of the St.Austell store.  I find this really ignorant.

Asda Poole, Dorset

This is the store I shop out of Weymouth as it is quiet during the week with plenty of space.  We do not have any George at Weymouth so this is the closest Asda that does.  The disabled parking is all under cover in the bays marked.  There is TCP cover here and the signage is the standard TCP/Asda signs with £40 fines etc.  However in all the visits I have made I have never seen any fine or warning on the screens of offenders here.  Abuse is not so bad but I think that this is because the spaces are further away from the entrance than most.  This is a good idea but the abuse still happens.  Asda charge via a cash ticket machine here for parking but this is returned via the checkout.  Disabled badge holders are exempt from getting ticket and that is good and saves a walk.

I think that this store has more people taking disabled to the shops just to use the badge for parking, as I see many disabled still in the cars left outside!  This is a worrying trend and extends the abuse to a level that Asda or TCP can not do anything about. 

I will let you have the details of more as they come in, so over to you.  If you can not get a pic, then I will try my hardest to get one for the site, so just let me now what your Asda is like.......

Here is Asda West Bridgeford, Nottingham

Mums Driver emailed me about this one.  They use the tannoy to inform abusers to move their cars.  See my letters page for the full email.  Thanks.

Disabled spaces nice and close here, not sure when the picture was taken but it seems quite quiet.

Please note that I shop here.  I have nothing against the shop, its brand or any other issue than Disabled Parking Space abuse by non badge holders and Asda's policy to allow it to happen.  Some item on this website are copyright of the respective owners and I respect that.  If you feel that you would like your item, name or comment to be removed or a link added, then please let me know.  You can contact me at

Thank you.  I do not mean to hurt, insult or bring personal harm anyone who is mentioned on this website and will remove sections when asked.  This site is to show everyone the truth and to show personal emails between me and the companies involved to try to change company policy towards the disabled drivers.  Any use of personal threats verbal or physical made to me will be taken very seriously and reported to the relevant authorities.