7/08/2007

Ludicrous parking charges at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital

Last night we had to rush to the hospital. Nothing for anyone to be overly stressed about, but we arrived just after 3am and left just before 6am and were astonished by the parking charges.

For less than three hours in the middle of the night on a Sunday we were charged £2.00. Okay, so £2 isn't a fortune, it is the same as I would pay for parking there in the middle of the afternoon on a week day.

It does seem ludicrously expensive given the hour of the day, doesn't it ?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why ludicrous? Presumably the NHS has to pay the car park/security staff to work 24/7 and since when was the Welfare State's legacy to ensure that the NHS delivered free car parking for all?

People pay well over £2 to shop in malls and department stores without batting an eyelid. Taxpayers money should be going on healthcare, not free car parking. Sheesh!

Nich Starling said...

Because I was there for three hours in the middle of the night.If you had ever visited the car park you would no there are no staff required as it uses electronic gates so there are no 24/7 associated staff costs so you've made yourself seem a bit dim.

grabber said...

there are barriers around the hospital but who mans the intercoms ? and who sorts the ticket jams and replaces tickets ? oh it would probably be the staff who are here 24/7! sadly you have made yourself look stupid because you have not even tried to get the right facts before you started your ranting . and before you start about the prices try parking in the city for less and before you try to argue that it is a hospital and you should not have to pay , don't because the site is privately owned and the staff have to pay to park here all year round whereas you probably come here about twice a year . i look forward to your response so i can put you right again

Nich Starling said...

Thanks for coming to this argument 14 MONTHS AFTER AI WROTE THE STORY !

If it's taken you this long to respond then I guess you would have had time to visit and see the two security staff on the desk who sit there doing a good job, but I would remind you, there are two of them. the daytime staffing levels are much higher so why are they charging night users the same rate as day users might expect.

It's odd that in Scotland they can give free parking but you seem so entrenched that in England we can't.

The problem is that we should not be mortgaing ourselves to PFI schemes in the first place so we wouldn't face these problems.

Nich Starling said...

Oh, I should add, yes, you can pay in the city at those times for considerably less. Parking overnight in a city centre ar park from 6.30 pm to 8am is just £1.60.

The city council too have security costs, people to sort out jams, etc, but they realise that you should not fleece people outside of peak times.

Anonymous said...

The day time staffing levels are actually less, and there is a £2 charge per 24 hours over the weekend. Im sure if you would have stayed 24 hours and paid £2 you would not be complaining???.

terry said...

i attend the hospital on a regular basis and i always see a lot more than 2 security officers there who are constantly walking about and i have also spoken to them about your comments and they assure me that you will not get safer parking anywhere else. i have seen the carparks in the city centre and none of them are manned 24/7 with people walking round but if you are lucky you might see a nice policeman drive past , and if you think that there are security present why dont you go into the multi storey carparks and ask the homeless how many times they get moved on and i bet the answer is never and no i am not having a go at them because most of them are genuinley homeless of no fault of their own.

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