The dad of a partially-sighted swimmer wants a crackdown on people parking in disabled bays at a leisure centre.

Sean Trundle takes his partially-sighted and autistic son Martin Trundle to Horwich Leisure Centre twice a week for swimming.

Martin, 30, is training at the centre as a professional swimmer and has completed the Paralympic S12 competition in the past.

On Mondays Martin attends the leisure centre at 8.30pm, but Sean is forced to park away from the entrance and walk him to the door as he says the disabled bays are full of cars with no blue badge being displayed.

Mr Trundle, 56, from Bolton, said: “One car in 10 spaces had a blue badge last Monday and the staff do not want to know.

“Bolton Council said they cannot do anything when I call because they say it is private land.

“If he falls over, it is because he cannot see and that is not on."

The council said work is ongoing at the leisure centre, including "essential improvements" to the parking area, which will lead to a "significant increase in the number of disable bays". 

Mr Trundle also says there is barely any lighting over the car park, making it further difficult for Martin to see.

He said: “The best lighting comes from the light at the building site, but the rest of the car park has none.

“I had to ask them to turn the lights on before, but it only got a little better.”

Mr Trundle says he can never find a parking space in disabled bays and wants people to only park there if they have a visible blue badge.

He said: “I did ask someone why they parked there without a blue badge, but they said they could not find another space, well they did not look very hard because I found one.

“It is just ridiculous that people think it is okay to park there without a badge.

“I am sick to the back teeth asking staff what I can do when nobody seems to know anything.”

Mr Trundle wants the council and leisure centre to implement the parking rules as stated, do that people will not park in a disabled bay without a blue badge.

He said: “The people parking there do not even park correctly, they are squeezed in.”

In response to the problem, a council spokesperson said: “The ongoing development to Horwich Health Centre includes essential improvements to the leisure centre parking area which will eventually deliver a significant increase in the number of disabled bays.

“Unfortunately, the work causing some temporary disruption and we apologise to all leisure centre users for the issues this has caused. 

“The site is private land which means disabled car parking spaces cannot be legally enforced, but rather we rely on the good will of drivers to leave the bays free for those who need them.”