Outraged Sheffield parents left fuming over 'lack of parent and child parking spaces' at Meadowhall

Outraged Sheffield parents have hit out over the 'lack of parent and child parking spaces' at Meadowhall.
Leanne and Corby at Meadowhall - Credit: @dotter1812Leanne and Corby at Meadowhall - Credit: @dotter1812
Leanne and Corby at Meadowhall - Credit: @dotter1812

David and Leanne Jotter were taking their five-week-old baby, Corby, to the shopping centre on Wednesday, June 26, when they were attempting to find a parking space.

However, they discovered that the handful of parent and child parking spaces were all full while there were ‘hundreds’ of other empty spaces. 

Leanne and Corby at Meadowhall - Credit: @dotter1812Leanne and Corby at Meadowhall - Credit: @dotter1812
Leanne and Corby at Meadowhall - Credit: @dotter1812
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After searching for another child-friendly space, the new parents were forced to find a spot at the bottom of the car park ‘well away from the entrance’.

David said that they needed to find a space that didn’t have other cars ‘constantly driving past’ and allowed them the room to get Corby out of the car safely. 

The parents were then forced to assemble their pram, and put Corby inside it, in the middle of the road. 

An outraged David has now called on Meadowhall to install more child and parent parking spaces at the shopping centre.

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He said: “We decided to go to Meadowhall because my partner and I wanted to look for some new, smaller clothes for Corby, who is six weeks premature. 

“Leanne drove and followed the signs to the parent and toddler parking which was well sign posted and wasn’t an issue. We counted 30 parking spaces that were all full, something that can’t be avoided.

“It wasn’t clear if there was any other toddler parking around so we had to drive to the bottom of the car park away from the entrance to find a suitable space.”

David said they needed to assemble the pram, remove the car seat and take Corby out of it, put Corby in the pram and put the car seat away, all in the middle of the road.

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“On that day the car park wasn’t overly busy but on a weekend it would be dangerous and stressful,” David said.

“We had the space required but had to go out of the way to find it.

“Cars were driving past us but, again, this would be expected in mother and baby parking but a weekend would be much busier with less space.”

Meadowhall has more than 12,000 free car parking spaces and there are 350 disabled spaces available. 

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There are also more than 200 parent and child spaces in the car parks, except zones 3 and 4, working out at roughly 1.6 per cent of the total spaces available. 

Meadowhall has been contacted for a response.