A major supermarket is to fine drivers £60 at its stores in Scotland if they wrongly park in a space reserved for parents with young children or the disabled.

Asda is to use private firm Town and City Parking, licensed by the DVLA to issue civil penalties, to enforce the fines which are due to be introduced at the end of March.

The company will be entitled to chase up non-payment of the fines through the courts.

The scheme comes after an Asda trial in the north-west of England saw the number of available parking spots in the disabled and parent section rise by up to 60%.

The fines follow a number of attempts by the company to halt unauthorised parking. These included loudspeaker messages for drivers as they arrived in the restricted spaces and leaflet campaigns.

Money generated through the fair parking scheme will be donated to the Motability disabled travel project and the Tommy's baby charity.

Paul Hedley, customer service manager, said signs would alert drivers to the potential fines. "At Asda we have decided to take a stand to keep specialised parking spaces available to those customers that need them.

"Most customers using these bays without good reason don't realise their actions impact on people that rely on them to do their weekly shop."

Priority parking spaces are reserved for disabled customers with a blue badge in their cars and for parents with a child under 12.

An Asda poll found four out of five of its customers thought the parking fines should be extended nationally.

Bill Campbell, project manager for Inclusion Scotland, said: "I very much welcome this initiative and I hope it will be effective and fully enforced.

"It will certainly make life a lot easier for disabled drivers. This issue is pretty much at the top of the disabled driver's agenda as they try and get around. Disabled people who don't have access to other forms of public transport very much rely on their own cars.

"To have to park away from the entrance of shops presents real practical problems for them. They have the right to shop and get around as much as anyone else."

Tommy's chief executive, Jane Brewin, said: "Putting fines in place for parking misuse is a bold move by Asda but is the right one for giving parents with young children a helping hand."

At present, most disabled parking bays, whether it be outside the home or in shop car parks, are reserved for the use of disabled people through courtesy only and there is no legal protection of the spaces for their rightful users.

Disabled bays on public roads are, in general, enforceable by traffic wardens in much the same way as yellow lines are.

Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, has called for all the disabled parking bays in Scotland to be enforceable and is in the process of drafting a member's bill which is to be presented to the Scottish Government.

Ms Baillie said the move by Asda was "fabulous news".

She added: "I want to try and insure that every disabled parking bay in Scotland is legally enforceable.

"I have had a number of complaints from disabled constituents who have been physically unable to go about their daily lives simply because someone has parked in their bay, whether it is outside their home or supermarket.

"I don't think the majority of people realise the consequences that parking in a disabled bay can carry. I fully support what Asda is doing on this front. It is a very positive move.

"This is a real problem experienced by disabled people. One of my constituents summed it up to me when they said if you want to take my parking space, then please, please take my disability'."