Dear Sir,
I read the letter submitted by a War Pensioner re parking at Tesco.  I am an 83 Senior Citizen and Disabled and I had a similar experience at Tesco when all the Disabled Bays were occupied.
I waited until a Bay became vacant and then parked. I then noted the next five Bays adjacent to mine were occupied by five vehicles with no disabled badges displayed.
They were mainly top of the range new models including a Mercedes, obviously using the wider bays to avoid being damaged.
I complained to Customer Services and was told in no uncertain terms that Tesco did not police their paking and it was up to people’s conciences where they parked.
I said O.K but can you take the numbers of the culprits and over their tannoy shame them to move the cars. They said if they did it may lose them valuable customers.
I was annoyed regarding this attitude I received, so I telephoned Tesco Head Office to complain. I was received with extreme politeness but they reiterated that they did not police their car parks.
I then wrote to Esther McVey who at that time was the Minister for the Disabled. I received a curt reply saying this was a local matter and I should take it up with my M.P. I pointed out that Tesco is a National organisation and their parking policy spreads across the U.K and was therefore applicable to all disabled using Tesco.
I did not receive a reply.
George Oakley
Ryder Court
Korean War Veteran
EDITOR: We spoke to Martin Butcher, Tesco Manager who confirmed there is no policing or requests over the tannoy for people not to park in bays reserved for disabled people.
The store relies on the honesty and integrity of people using those spaces. Customers have been confronted in the past and it has led to a very volatile situation where members of staff have been threatened. He sympathised with the reader and agreed it was wrong for able bodied people to take these spaces and they should be ashamed.