The Radiographers' Alliance

[Wee Roentgen]

Car parking charges are being introduced at my hospital over the next few months and I'm flippin' furious. I will have to pay £480 per year for the priviledge of bringing my car to work. It's bad enough that I'm being charged at all but to compound matters, consultants on £100K+ will pay the same as me. This is all done, the bosses say, to encourage us to use alternative modes of transport other than the car but this is nothing more than a smokescreen. It's about making money from staff and visitors. It will take me two buses and two hours to travel 11 miles to work which is a non-starter.
Anybody out there having to pay more than £480 to park at work?

[Ian]

£24-10 per month for a staff permit (electronic fob) which doesn't guarantee a space. £1-60 per visit for patients, visitors, etc. They have recently introduced free parking vouchers for patients attending frequently. such as radiotherapy patients. We've been paying parking charges for many years now.

[Kuranes]

We have had a similar thing here for a while now. I also travel about 10 miles each way which takes an hour and a half on the bus. I now cycle. It only takes 40 minutes, is free and gives a great feeling when I pass all the motorists stuck in their traffic jams...

As for the consultants paying more, I've always thought that an odd argument. After all, if you and they park in a city centre car park you'd pay the same without any second thoughts.

[Easog]

When I was working at Watford they introduced a system of pro-rata charges for the car park.
It was at that point I started parking 100 yards from the entrance of the car park on the road leading to it (paying strict attention to match days at which point it became permit holder only for a few hours)
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Eagles may soar,
but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

[Wee Roentgen]

[cinnamon]

That's terrible - no way would I pay that!

My placement hospital charges £52 a year, luckily they let me have one for free as I'm a student and have to travel over 20 miles to get to placement.

Try and find somewhere to park in the street, even if it means a bit of a walk - it's good exercise! It's a bonus if it annoys the residents - the outcry might force a U-turn on the charges.

If it doesn't look like there is anywhere to park , look at a map and see if there is a street that is a long way by road but a much shorter distance if you walk it. For example, the hospital I live near to (not my placement one ) has a footpath leading out the back of the car park to a housing estate with no parking restrictions. I've no idea why people continue to pay for the car park when this estate is so close by!

If none of that is any good, find somewhere you can park on the bus route and do the last bit by bus - should be a lot cheaper than the parking permit.
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Student Radiographer - 3rd year.

[Wee Roentgen]

Thank you cinnamon for your suggestions. The trouble is, my hospital is in a rather 'rough' area and there's always the risk the car will get broken into. But at £480 per year, it's a risk I'm willing to take.
Cheers!

[Ian]

Parking in the streets nearby leads to a proliferation of yellow lines and resident-only parking schemes, I'm afraid, not removal or reduction in fees.

[Kuranes]

[tigger]

At least you get a parking space! We don't have any apart from those god-like creatures aka consultants!

[Sparky]

We get parking on site fer nowt. C'est fantastique.

The previous hosp I worked at had:

Near site parking for $32 a month
On-site guaranteed space (specially marked and patrolled) $80 a month.

The near site parking was 15mins walk but the hosp provided a minibus that ran every half hour.

On-call bods had special o/c spaces by the front door and had to display a card issued to them by security on the dash.