Local News

Retailers in common sense shocker

22/06/09 - 0 comments

Retailers at Exeter's Exebridges Retail Park have come forward to demand that slapdash parking company APCOA cancel the ticket given to an expectant mother just days before her child was born.

Echo readers seem to be pretty unforgiving of the heavily pregnant woman who parked in a mother and baby space, which are intended to give mothers an easier time of things, saying until her baby was born she should not expect to be treated any different to the rest of us, the heartless bastards.

The parking attendant at the time also stated that her unborn baby did not count as a child until it had been relocated from her uterus. A case of the rules being enforced by the letter but not in the spirit in which they were written.

Savills, the agents for Exebridges Retail Park, clearly disagree with APCOA and think that pregnant women shouldn't be penalised when it comes to parking in mother and child spaces and have unreservedly apologised for the actions of it's parking attendants, presumably because of the publicity generated, and will even be sending her a voucher as a gesture of goodwill.

The baby has now been born so there should be no further problems with her parking in the mother and baby spaces.

Reading the Echo's comments this has clearly split opinion. Whilst someone who has just got themselves knocked up shouldn't be taking advantage of the spaces, it's clear that a parent or expectant mother, who has difficulty moving due to the growing foetus in her abdomen, should be able to use the spaces put there to help them.

All we can assume is that APCOA care more about their ticket quotas and how much money they can make than the customers they are supposed to be serving.

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