Posted By Merv Newman Peter, can't help with the "responsibility" side, but I once printed up some fake disabled stickers, blue with white wheelchair symbol which said : This parking space is reserved for people who are * Physically, * Mentally or * Morally Handicapped. For our future reference please indicate how we should record your right to park here. The security guards were authorised to stick them to the windscreens as appropriate.

Posted By Sean Fraser A question close to my own heart, this one. There is comprehensive on the terms and application of the Act on: http://www.drc-gb.org/up...rights%20of%20Access.doc It contains a plethora of examples to help interpret the meaning through practical ilustrations. Interestingly, it misses out the very one that we all see, every day - the one you've asked about. Funny that. One wonders if the duty of care extends beyond actual provision of an allocated space to actually keeping it clear. Possibly not, as no one (to my knowledge) has actually challenged it in court. I know of a major supermarket chain who have an on-going awareness campaign on this subject, where they have a picture that has "lazy" and "rude" parking spaces either side of the disabled spot - illustrating the attitude of the inconsiderates who put their own convenience above others who would actually benefit far more from the parking spot. Quite a memorable image.

Posted By John Webster The parent and child spaces are there to help attract clients/customers with children (cynical? me?), and have no status under any legislation. However, disabled spaces are a different matter. Explicit within the Disability Discrimination Act is the right of a disabled person to access publicly accessible services on equal terms, and the provider of the service must ensure that reasonable provision is made to allow them to do so. If your health club is not providing goods or services to the public, ie if it has selective membership criteria, then the Act does not apply. If anyone can join, then the Act does apply, and where only a limited number of designated parking spaces are suitable for access by people with particular disabilities, then the health club must take reasonable steps to ensure that others do not use them. This very example is dealt with in section 5.7 of the DDA Code of Practice (ISBN 0-11-271055-7, HMSO £12.95). Of course, if all other spaces were full, then it would be OK for club to allow a non-disabled person to use the space (a full car park is equally full to all, so no discrimination). There is a parallel scenario in 5.8, in which a hotel with a limited number of accessible rooms should allocate those rooms last, but would not be expected to leave them empty on the chance of a disabled person requiring a room.