Wednesday, 8th February 2006.

Park and (taken for a) ride, part II

Ho hum. Well, at least they got back to me.

From: Tesco Customer Service
Sent: 08 February 2006 14:48
To: James Baldock
Subject: Re: Complaint re Abingdon store

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry that some customers are abusing the parent & child parking spaces in our Abingdon store car park.

Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to impose a foolproof procedure to prevent this from happening. When we provide these facilities, we have to rely on our customers to observe and abide by the rules. Regrettably, we have not yet been able to devise a system that completely eliminates this problem. However, I can assure you that we are actively seeking a viable solution.

I am very sorry for the poor service you received when you reported this incident to our store and I have informed our Store Manager who will ensure the matter is addressed with the staff concerned.

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to contact us and for making us aware of this situation.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind Regards

Tesco Customer Service

* * * * *

My reply:

From: James Baldock
Sent: 08 February 2006 17:37
To: 'Tesco Customer Service'
Subject: Re: Complaint re Abingdon store

Thank you for your quick response. I appreciate that you have informed the Store Manager about Abingdon's apparent lack of interest in dealing with this matter.

However, I must confess to a certain level of curiosity with regard to your comment that "it is almost impossible to impose a foolproof procedure to prevent this from happening". I realise and appreciate this - however, whilst I admit that a certain amount of parking protocol is dependent on trust, I am also oblivious as to why adapting your car park so that it resembles the membership card scheme of Didcot's Tesco store is not an option for you. This would scale down the abuse of the parent-child schemes tenfold - whilst it would not necessarily obliterate the problem overnight, the use of permits in car windscreens would certainly help drastically.

Perhaps I am naive, but I can't help thinking that to implement this system at Abingdon would require no more work than putting up a sign and then having someone stroll around the parent-child section (which is not terribly big) every hour or so. This scheme works perfectly well in public parking areas where orange badges are required for disabled parking spaces - the principle is the same here. There would be no need to instigate a concrete penalty system as such - owners of vehicles parked in parent-child spaces without their membership permits could merely be asked via the P.A. to move their cars. More to the point, such a scheme would provide a strong motivating deterrent that would actively prevent parking offences before they were even committed.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter.

With thanks

James Baldock.