I know this car park. It is Oxford Parkway rail station car park, near Kidlington. This rail station is relatively new still, and usage is still ramping up. I use it from time to time. You should know:
1. The photo in the OP and original tweet doesn't show the many other lines of non-disabled parking. If you look at the Twitter thread you can see an aerial shot that gives a better idea, although it also includes part of the neighbouring park and ride car park (Water Eaton P&R) on the right. About 5% of the total spaces at the rail station are disabled. By space, it's more, as the disabled spaces are bigger, for obvious and sensible reasons.
2. Every time I've used the car park, there have been plenty of (non-disabled & disabled) spaces available. Isabel Oakeshott claims that when she visited all non-disabled spaces were occupied. I'm a little surprised, although it may be true. I rarely use it at peak times.
3. You could use the P&R car park right next door if the rail station car park is full, as Oakeshott claims to have done. There is now an electronic sign on the approach road that tells you how many spaces are free in the P&R. I pass it on most days, at the peak of the rush hour. Usually there are around 800-1000 free spaces. Maybe the train station car park is full when the P&R is not, although I doubt it.
4. Oakeshott claims that the P&R car park cost her twice as much as the rail station car park. According to these two web sites, the cost for up to 24 hours is actually the same:
https://www.apcoa.co.uk/parking/oxford/oxford-parkway-station/
https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/content/water-eaton-park-and-ride-ox2-8ha
(If she's right, and these web sites are wrong, that would explain why the rail station car park is full and the P&R car park is not. If she's right about the pricing, the fullness of the rail station car park has NOTHING to do with disabled space provision, it's because it is full of park and riders from next door. She simply can't be right about both.)
5. Oakeshott also claims in her thread that one of the aerial photos (tweeted by Paul Gallantry) does not show Oxford Parkway rail station car park on the left. This is untrue, as Paul Gallantry explains. That is EXACTLY what it shows.
I agree this has a bad smell about it. I don't believe Oakeshott.
Kind regards
- Garry