10 May 2007
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to create a legal system which resembles that currently in place for disabled drivers, for parent and child parking spaces. To make it illegal for people without a child under the age of five present in the car from using parent and child spaces and also to force all local councils to provide marked bays for parent and child spaces in addition to marked disabled spaces."
Details of petition:
"Parents with small children need these spaces for safety reasons rather than just convenience. It is often very difficult (if not impossible in some cases) so get small children and car seats in and out of cars in normal spaces as you are unable to open doors wide enough, you also have no protection for pushchairs as they cannot stand within the confines of a space and have to stand on the roadway whilst you organise your child. In many places, these spaces have not been installed at all, but where they do exist, their use cannot be legally enforced and as such many inconsiderate people use these spaces when they do not have a child present putting those of us who need them in danger. A card system which resembles that of the current disability card would help reduce this risk, as would forcing all councils to provide these spaces."
Read the Government’s response
The Government recognises the difficulties which can be involved in the carriage of small children.
Although the Government could pass new legislation, which would create parking bays for parents and young children, along similar lines to disabled parking bays, there are no current plans to do so. If such a law were to be passed, it would be up to individual Local Authorities to allocate and enforce the use of these parking bays. This would be both difficult to police and could hamper local efforts to keep traffic moving and reduce congestion levels for other road users.
The Government believes that Local Authorities already have an adequate range of powers to manage their local parking systems. To encourage good practice, the Department for Transport provides Local Authorities with detailed advice on powers, procedures and practicalities, such as the use of parking signs.
The Department for Transport does not regulate the provision of spaces in off-street car parks. Information on how parking is managed is available on the DfT website.
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