Thanks a lot for that information. I'm going to print that off so I have it to hand the next time I pursue M&S over this. I too was unsure whether a code of practice is equivalent to a legal requirement so I Googled it and found the following: 'Approved codes of practice supplement and support regulations. Although it is not a statutory requirement to follow them, they may be used in criminal proceedings as evidence that a statutory requirement has been contravened. However, a failure by a duty holder to observe a provision of an Approved Code of Practice does not render the duty holder automatically liable in criminal or civil proceedings'. So I think it's pretty clear that anyone like M&S would want to avoid being seen to contravene a code of practice, however I have found that my positive assumptions about M&S in this matter have not been matched by their attitude!. I must say that all their disabled spaces are enlarged spaces and of course in general you don't see many disabled spaces that aren't wide enough for a wheelchair to be loaded on/off your car. It's interesting that 9% is the figure which should be given over to visitors for disabled parking. I have noticed that M&S does seem to provide less disabled parking than the main supermarkets though of course I'm not sure whether M&S are providing less than 9%. Anyway all this has given me a lot of food for thought and I shall certainly give it all some thought, thanks again.
