The expansion of a Marks & Spencer store in Swindon is well underway, but shoppers have been concerned to see the disabled parking bays barricaded off.

Marks & Spencer at The Orbital shopping park was permitted to expand earlier this year, after closing its town centre branch. 

The North Swindon unit will grow by 40 per cent into the old Outfit store, featuring a fresh market-style food hall and renovated clothing, home and beauty departments.

But shoppers have been outraged to see the disabled parking bays outside the M&S and the closed Outfit store barricaded off while the work is being done on the units and taken to social media to vent their frustrations.

One person said: “As a person who is disabled with limited mobility, I find it infuriating that once again it’s the disabled bays that have been restricted.

“I know that the position of the works requires that, however, in my opinion, the mother and child spaces should temporarily be reassigned to disabled bays.

“I understand they need space to do it, but it’s just poor communication and a lack of thought.”

Another person agreed, commenting: “As a mother of three the issue is never being closest to the store, I agree this should be assigned to those less mobile.

"If they made some wider spaces in another part of the parking area to allow doors to open wide enough to get car seats out etc, they could easily repurpose the parent and child spaces closer to the stores for the less able.”

Temporary disabled bays are in place outside M&STemporary disabled bays are in place outside M&S (Image: British Land)

Temporary disabled bays are in place outside the M&S storeTemporary disabled bays are in place outside M&S (Image: British Land)

Following this, there seemed to be some confusion over whether disabled badge holders were able to park in parent and child spaces without being issued a penalty charge notice.

The Orbital Park owners, British Land, confirmed they have temporarily converted twelve normal spaces into six disabled parking spaces.

A spokesperson for British Land said: “Orbital Shopping Park takes accessibility for its customers very seriously. We are currently carrying out works on the former Outfit unit at Orbital, which M&S is expanding into.

"Due to demolition work, in the interests of health and safety, we have temporarily restricted access to 5 disabled parking bays outside the store. To replace these bays, directly behind them we have converted 12 non-disabled parking spaces to 6 disabled spaces and provided clear signage to this effect."