PARENTS like Claire Turner (Letters, August 8) make me so cross with their whinging over the so-called misuse of parent-and-child parking places in store car parks.

These places are provided by stores primarily as a marketing gimmick to encourage the gullible and high spending parent to shop there. They are not legally enforceable parking zones as the disabled places are, for which I have every respect.

Almost every local car park, including those provided by the local authority, has spaces that are too narrow to adequately accommodate the modern car and its wider doors - the evidence on the sides of my own car is testament to that fact.

It is therefore unsurprising that car owners who value their vehicle choose to use the wider spaces of the parent-and-child parking spaces.

However it is the building regulation and legislation on all parking places that requires changing, the minimum size of parking space having not been amended since the 1960s.

Since then the width of cars has increased considerably and it is now impossible to park even a modern mini within the confines of it, let alone open the doors.

Unfortunately the insistence of local council planners that a minimum number of parking spaces be supplied with each new development has resulted in the bare minimum size being applied to new sites as the developers attempt to utilise as much space as possible on the more lucrative retail or office areas within the site and yet still fulfil the conditions of the planning application regarding parking space allocation.

The consequence is that this problem is likely to increase unless supermarkets and local authorities apply some sense to both existing and future commercial developments.

In the meantime Claire, although I empathise with your task of removing children from cars in tight spaces - yes, I've been there, I know - please have a little tolerance for the rest of our community who have to deal with wide doors, large bags and small legs and respect for our cars' bodywork.

You have no rights' to privileged parking. You are not disabled, just inconvenienced. Get over it.

B TWIST