Update to: Baby Friendly Shopping – Coventry Town Centre | Belgrade Plaza Car Park

This is an update to the Previous Blog Entry: Baby Friendly Shopping – Coventry Town Centre. In the earlier post I mentioned that the Belgrade Plaza Car Park, whilst not particularly baby friendly, wasn’t too bad for parking with a baby. After I parked there this weekend, I’d actually now say the opposite, that in general it is unsuitable for those with babies, or young children in a push chair.

My earlier comments still stand: “The Belgrade Plaza Car Park (formally Leigh Mills Car Park) does not have special parking spaces, but it is sometimes possible to find an end space, and it does have good walkways around the cars”, but this only applies when parking on alternate levels. If you are parking on the levels with only a number (eg. level 3, or level 4) then this works quite well, but if you park on one of the ones with a letter (eg. level 3a, or level 4a) then they are completely unsuitable for push chairs. The reason as I found out this weekend is that the only pedestrian access between these levels is via a set of stairs. These are large and awkward to negotiate with a push chair. The alternative, which I ended up doing, is to go down the car ramps, which are completely unsuitable and potentially very dangerous for pedestrians.

The car park, whilst not completely new has been newly refurbished and it’s a real shame that the safety of push chair users appears to have been ignored.

My suggestion is to not use the Belgrade Plaza Car Park if you have a baby or toddler in a push chair. If you do use the car park then you should make sure that you park on the same levels as the lifts.

For the rest of the details about how baby and child friendly Coventry is see the entry: Baby Friendly Shopping – Coventry Town Centre.