If its private land then legally theres nothing stopping anybody from using any space they wish. The owner of the car park (or rather the company contracted to run it) will have their own policies and they'd all issue a 'fine' for parking in one without a badge. But as noted above, a private company cannot issue a fine so you have no legal obligation to even respond, regardless of how 'official' and threatening the 'penalty charge notices' appear to be. If the company took you to court and a court demanded you to pay then you'd have to, but 99 times out of 100 the company doesnt bother.

Public land is different, such as council car parks or restricted on-street parking (disabled spaces, yellow lines etc). A ticket issued there will be by the council which are genuine fines and must be paid or appealed. As a basic rule, the council can give you a fine, NCP cant. So legally in a supermarket car park nobody has any legal rights over any space, basically.

Why do you ask?

I've come across people like that, they wont dare touch the little old lady but if it was you or me then it wouldve ended violently. My mother has a blue badge and generally doesnt have much trouble finding somewhere to park, being able to park on double yellows is very useful for her.

At work i park in a disabled space. Its private land and we have more disabled spaces than we need, for a car the size of the S-Type, a disabled space is just about right. I do my best to reduce the risk of general cretins damaging it by taking up two spaces (actually i tend to park in the space but *just* far enough over that its inconvenient to park next to me) because the general public cannot be trusted. The public are like magpies, they see a nice shiny thing which is better than their crummy hatchback and they dent it almost on purpose.

I think the problem in towns with the disabled parking isnt because people are disrespectful, i think its basic maths. For years now, councils have done their best to attack the car and make shopping inconvenient for anybody who dares to own one, now they are rightfully paying the price with shops closing. Every town now does road narrowing, parking restrictions, needless pedestrianisation and 'shared spaces' which are a waste of money and the upshot is that unless you've got a blue badge you cant park anywhere vaguely near the town. Im not making excuses for the abuse of facilities, but basic mathematics and logic dictates that if the only parking available is disabled parking then compliance with the rules will be lower. Its very simple.

I didn't know that daveyjp. But thinking about it, a blue badge is really only a universal parking ticket for local authority controlled roads and doesn't have any authority in a private car park other than to display to others that the vehicle really does belong to a disabled person. However there is always someone who doesn't give a toss and parks there just because they can. When I take my elderly mother shopping (92 and counting) it would sometimes be useful to use a disabled bay or a mother and child bay but somehow I don't feel entitled. I wonder what it feels like to be totally selfish and uncaring about anyone or anything around you. Next time I see that huge bloke in Stirling I will ask him- or perhaps not. Cheers Concrete