NHS Trust to charge staff £220 to park cars at work, forget about job cuts this is even worse.

[Sore Thumb]

My local NHS Trust looks like they are going to start charging staff to park their cars at work. At the moment it looks like it will be a charge of £220 per year.

The thing is there are notices everywhere from the unions worded in very strong terms to stop this action by the trust at all costs. The unions are a bit laid back when it comes to possible staff redundancies, relocations, demotions and management of change restructuring. But make the staff pay to park their cars, well that is another matter and must be stopped.

Most people are in uproar over this in my department. With people saying they will refuse to pay, people saying well what can the trust do as they will need my permission to take money direct from my wages. Well what can they do, they can stop all car park passes and if you want to park your car in the future you will probably have to apply for a new one with payment. No payment no parking, simple really. People are saying they will park on the road etc. I'm waiting for the council to start painting double yellow lines on all the local roads just before the trust implements this policy.

Everyone will do anything to avoid paying this charge, well apart from walking, getting the bus or cycling. Not really true as one person did tell me that as they only lived 10 minutes from the hospital that they might consider cycling to work.

I've cycled to work for at least four years now and in that time I've probably only used the car park about ten times. So they had better not take this money from my wages without my permission as I have no intention of using my car for work. Does anyone know the legal side of this?

At the moment I must say I am winding the car users up a bit by saying that the £220 seems a bit reasonable as I thought they could really charge around £300.

Does anyone else work for the NHS that charges for car parking and what does your trust charge?

 

[mangaman]

I do

They brought in a £30 pound a month charge for staff a year or so back.
Like you I think it's fair enough.

The charge is optional and there's a perfectly good bus service and they increased the amount of cycle parking facilities

I would make sure you can opt out of paying like I did, and also stress the need for decent bike storage facilities to be put in

There has definitely been a reduction in the number of cars in the staff car parks

 

[GrahamG]

Perhaps you could suggest to the union that they first develop and implement a travel plan so that staff have a range of incentives and support in finding alternative modes. THey'll love that

 

[Sore Thumb]

The union just want to stop this action and the Trust probably don't care how you get to work as long as you get to work. How you get to work is your own problem.

I also think that the car parks are managed by a private firm, so I'm not sure who gets the money and if any of the money goes back into the NHS.

Even though you will have to pay you also won't be guaranteed a space or security.

Most staff will talk about been militant but I guess most will pay up.

 

[summerdays]

Don't worry the council won't bother putting in extra yellow lines... the neighbours will just have to put up with the extra parking... I live near enough to a hospital to see the staff parking on them.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

We pay a monthly fee here in Manchester at the University. It's part of their Green Initiative (presumably the green of the money!) and the cost is based on your salary.

As I drive to work twice a week (play footie and don't have space/energy to carry the kit as well as my work clothes etc.) I pay the fee as it's cheaper than paying the 3 quid odd charge per day for car parking.

 

[piedwagtail91]

our local hospital charged £600,00 last year with a substantial part coming from staff. some of the nurses are being ripped off with some commenting on the story. wonder how long they'll be in a job for daring to criticize?

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.u...l_for_hospital_parking_in_east_lancashire.php

 

[Jaded]

I also think that the car parks are managed by a private firm, so I'm not sure who gets the money and if any of the money goes back into the NHS.

Generally there is a contract with the private firm, who quotes for a certain level of cover: security, patrols to ensure everyone has a ticket, maintaining the machines, cash collection etc. There will be admin and profit costs on top of that and then the rest is for the Trust.

There's a cost to providing a car park, resurfacing, painting lines, lighting, sweeping, signage etc. and many people forget this.

The government has discussed making work-place provided parking spaces a benefit-in-kind and I'd be in favour of that. Then if the spaces are charged for at equivalent rates to other nearby parking facilities they wouldn't be seen as a benefit.

Your union response does highlight how ingrained the car culture is.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

Based on a 48-week year, that's ~90p a day. Which is nothing.

They introduced it at the hospital I used to work at, and the security that it paid for brought vehicle break-ins down from about 3 a week to one in a year or so. And it stopped people using it as a free park and ride into the city centre.

Steps were taken to ensure that the local residents weren't adversely affected by staff parking on the streets, and that also works pretty well.

They also installed covered, secure cycle storage and showers/locker rooms for cyclists and runners.

and saving the trust money in the long run by encouraging people to be healthy and less likely to be brought in one day on a stretcher with chest pains.

 

[ufkacbln]

Here in Portsmouth (Queen Alexandra) there is a big clampdown on staff parking locally with major restrictions and enforcement. One of my colleagues was booked for parking 8 feet too close to a junction.

I have more of a problem with patients being charged for parking than I do staff.

 

[marinyork]

Generally there is a contract with the private firm, who quotes for a certain level of cover: security, patrols to ensure everyone has a ticket, maintaining the machines, cash collection etc. There will be admin and profit costs on top of that and then the rest is for the Trust.

There's a cost to providing a car park, resurfacing, painting lines, lighting, sweeping, signage etc. and many people forget this.

The government has discussed making work-place provided parking spaces a benefit-in-kind and I'd be in favour of that. Then if the spaces are charged for at equivalent rates to other nearby parking facilities they wouldn't be seen as a benefit.

Your union response does highlight how ingrained the car culture is.

At the hospital I worked at it was all done in house afaik. Anyway the solution they came up with years ago was to ban all car use except for nomenklatura, medics and a few other staff like lab on-calls. If they had charges there it's not malicious anti-car, it's just being practical - there wasn't enough car parking space for even a small number of workers which would leave zero for patients. The hospital was recently forced to have some short stay cycle provision for patients/staff occasionally cycling by the council, before this there was none.

The patient side used to be evened up by parking in the streets around the hospital (not necessarily outside upto 15-20 mins walk away). The council introduced several parking zones which made the situation much worse. It has been one reason why there are plans to move the hospital next to a motorway making it even more car reliant

Anyway I'm sure the union will be on it's case. As long as there's some opt out you should be fine.

 

[jonesy]

Perhaps you could suggest to the union that they first develop and implement a travel plan so that staff have a range of incentives and support in finding alternative modes. THey'll love that

I thought all NHS trusts were supposed to have had travel plans in place by now anyway?

One question I'd raise is that I hope the charge isn't a one-off annual fee for a permit. If they do that then once people have paid the fee then there is no marginal benefit to them for not driving in, so no incentive for trying out cycling etc. Some sort of mechanism for per day charging is essential to reward the behaviour they want to encourage.

 

[domd1979]

Ever tried getting a Trust to implement one.....?!

I thought all NHS trusts were supposed to have had travel plans in place by now anyway?

 

[historyman]

My employer introduced a charge of £1.25 a day for parking which had been previously free. All car drivers got real indignant. So did I - cos £1.25 is peanuts. I went to a big meeting and supported the charge & said it should be tripled.

 

[fossyant]

Parking charges are being introduced at my Uni in September - but promises of funding going into cycle facilities etc - much needed at the moment...

Still pretty cheap - £250/£300 on average, but it's quite sensible graded based upon salary, and also you only get a space depending upon need - i.e. work travel, specific personal issues etc.