02 Aug Parent child parking bays causing confusion in Essex
Drivers in the East of England are wrongly taking advantage of parent and child parking spaces, leaving mums and dads battling to find spaces with young children in tow.
A new investigation by Confused.com reveals that a quarter (25%) of parent and child parking spaces in the East of England are being misused (1). Researchers monitored dedicated spaces in supermarkets to find a shameful number of people misusing them when they were without a child. And Confused.com isn’t the only witness to this behaviour. Staggeringly, more than two thirds (68%) drivers in the East of England have witnessed a parent and child parking space being misused.
This is an issue that is widespread across the UK, as the investigation revealed one in four (26%) parent and child parking spaces are not being used correctly.
Further research has found that there’s confusion around the use of parent and child parking bays. Can you park in them regardless of whether you have a child with you? How old does your child have to be before you have to stop using the spaces? Almost one in six (16%) UK drivers say the rules around parent and child parking bays are confusing. To clear up this confusion, Confused.com has compiled the guidelines for some of the top UK supermarkets so people can be confident they’re adhering to the rules.
One in 10 (11%) UK drivers who don’t have children under the age of 12 and weren’t travelling with a child at the time admit to using a parent and child dedicated bay. But confusion around the issue can’t always be blamed, as many seem to have motivation for flouting the rules.
