CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

"Nurse 'owes £150,000' for parking tickets"

(24 posts)
  • Started 6 years ago by kaputnik
  • Latest reply from crowriver

  1. kaputnik
    Moderator

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-40628560

    Selected highlights below;

    On Friday, a judge at Cardiff Civil Justice Centre ruled private company Indigo could collect the charges from University Hospital of Wales staff. The ruling means 78 people must pay £128 per outstanding ticket. Campaigner Sue Prior said one nurse had tickets amounting to £150,000.

    Staff nurse Felicity Richards added: "I have to allow 45 minutes to an hour extra to park my car every morning to find somewhere to park.

    "By the time I get into work there are usually no parking spaces and I have to park off site and quite often I have to park a 20 to 25 minutes walk away."

    Ms Prior said staff had permits which allowed them to park in designated areas for £1.05 a day. But she said a lack of spaces meant staff had been forced to park in unauthorised areas.

    It's an emotive subject, I know. But.

    1 - do we assume that 100% of hospital staff who wish to park their cars at their place of work should be able to do so 100% of the time at a free or subsidised rate.

    2 - If it's taking you 45 minutes to get your car parked in the morning, at what point do you decide that perhaps there may be an alternative 1 or 2 days a week.

    This is a major hospital in central Cardiff that seems well served by buses and has 2 train stations on different lines <1 mile away. It's not like there can't be alternatives, even if they could be improved.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  2. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @kaputnik

    The hospital I was born in had a large accommodation block for nurses. Is it beyond the wit of you couldn't make it up etc.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  3. chdot
    Admin

    "had a large accommodation block for nurses"

    First word is the key one.

    ERI had at least one.

    Does the RIE have any nursing accommodation on site or anywhere?

    (Not that all nurses should/would want to live in it.)

    Posted 6 years ago #

  4. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Key question; Are nurses there to help us get better or are they a revenue stream for those of us who are shareholders?

    Posted 6 years ago #

  5. ih
    Member

    From R4 P.M. programme. Apparently some people are having to cycle to avoid fines, AND some of those are pregnant. Genuine question: is that a problem (cycling while pregnant that is)?

    Two more P.M. bits of information. 98% of the staff follow the parking rules, and most of the fines are on three persistent offenders.

    Why do people feel that it is a fundamental human right to be able to drive to work and park there?

    Posted 6 years ago #

  6. chdot
    Admin

    "Genuine question: is that a problem (cycling while pregnant that is)?"

    Generally beneficial -

    http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=9315

    Posted 6 years ago #

  7. gibbo
    Member

    Her excuse seems like nonsense to me.

    If it was a consequence of the lack of parking in the area, then there'd be a number of other nurses who owe similar amounts.

    If she's some extraordinary outlier, then odds are she's doing things others aren't.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  8. Frenchy
    Member

    £150,000 divided by £128 is around 1200 days worth of tickets. On a 5 day week, and counting a few weeks holidays per year, that's over 5 years worth of parking tickets.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  9. crowriver
    Member

    Sounds like staff nurse Felicity Richard has been a very naughty nurse for quite a long time. I know we don't like the word scofflaw because it's what many drivers think of cyclists, however in this case it appears to be appropriate.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  10. edinburgh87
    Member

    I could think of a lot more driving offences deserving of a £150k sanction than what's described above..

    Posted 6 years ago #

  11. gembo
    Member

    Nurses shifts start at funny times maybe? They are often on their feet all day. Good candidates for electric bikes?

    Posted 6 years ago #

  12. crowriver
    Member

    From the article:

    —-

    Indigo said as a "gesture of goodwill" in April 2016 it cancelled all parking charge notices up to the end of March 2016 and reduced the charge to £10 if paid within 14 days.

    A spokesman said Friday's court hearing related to three "persistent offenders" who had accumulated in excess of 100 tickets between them since April 2016.

    Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said more than 98% of staff complied with parking regulations and it was "disappointing" some had "chosen to refuse to co-operate".

    Len Richards, the board's chief executive, said: "People have known what the potential outcome could be and I don't think there's anything we can do, as an organisation, to defend them from that."

    —-

    So some drivers are apparently "at it" and thought they'd get away with it. Now that they haven't they ask for our sympathy.

    Yes I know, they are nurses, essential workers, etc. That is not the issue here. It's their scofflaw parking habits.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  13. gkgk
    Member

    £1.05 a day, crazy cheap, no wonder the parking is bunged up.

    They should charge commercial rates, with cashable travel vouchers for lowest paid staff whether they drive or cycle or choose to pay more to live nearer and walk. That would encourage sensible choices, and stop the poorest non-driving staff from effectively subsidising the parking costs of consultants' Bentleys.

    At £1 a day, if I worked there, I'd grab a second-hand winnebago and set up base, like Jim Rockford.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  14. gembo
    Member

    @gkgk, yes, voucher say a fiver a day paid whether you use it or not might help. Hopefully not taxed as perk. However, civil service been paying 25p a mile to cycle for years to incentivise cycling. (Though that probably does not work anymore due to HMRC rules on first and last journey of day not counting).

    Jim Rockford is a great example too. Had to live in a trailer because he loved his fancy car so much, was it a Mustang?

    Sings theme tune (do-do-do-do-di-Di-di-di -di-di-di) all morning whilst out cycling to the apple pie.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  15. acsimpson
    Member

    The article has since been updated to state that teh £150K figure was inaccurate.

    Even £10 a day for the parking fine seems pretty reasonable compared to some places. I Assume the Bentleys are parking by the door and just paying up.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  16. wee folding bike
    Member

    Pontiac Firebird unless he was undercover using Rocky's pick up.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rockford_Files#Firebird_Esprit

    Posted 6 years ago #

  17. gembo
    Member

    Thanks wee folding, I thought someone would know. WhT was the nMe of the recurring character who used to feed Jim Rockford info? Was it Angelo?

    I saw James Garner in Support your Local Sherriff in the Viking Cinema Largs circa 1979. Prow of a longboar stuck out the doorway. Became storage for Whisky Mac, The Wham's Dram

    Just stopped watching a most exciting schlepp up the Izoard but declining to watch Bodie and Doyle in The Professionals

    Posted 6 years ago #

  18. ejstubbs
    Member

    "lack of spaces meant staff had been forced to park in unauthorised areas."

    I would suggest that lack of spaces had merely led to staff choosing to park in unauthorised areas rather than considering other alternatives.

    "I have to park off site and quite often I have to park a 20 to 25 minutes walk away."

    Is it just me, or this unutterably pathetic coming from a health professional? Having to walk for 20 to 25 minutes. How can the human body withstand such exertion?

    I suspect she just needs to get out of bed a bit earlier.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  19. Arellcat
    Moderator

    I used to work not far from Waverley Station. I had a colleague who lived in South Queensferry or thereabouts, and relied on (free) on-street parking near our office, for we had no car park.

    The only problem was, the nearest such parking was on the other side of Arthur's Seat. So, massive commute at stupid o'clock by car, then a lengthy but not unpleasurable walk, twice a day.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  20. neddie
    Member

    Yes, those who've already locked themselves into unsustainable 1hr commutes by car, find it too much to bear to add another 20mins of walking on each journey.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  21. algo
    Member

    @gembo Evelyn "Angel" Martin

    Posted 6 years ago #

  22. gembo
    Member

    Thanks Algo

    Jim Rockford loved by all? He is sort of modelled on chandler's Philip Marlowe, though Marlowe drove an Oldsmobile and lived in house.

    Of some coincidence I was passed on the incredibly hilly B743 Sorn road by a silver Pontiac firebird. I gave the disappearing vehicle a salute.

    Posted 6 years ago #

  23. chdot
    Admin

    Someone else.

    “

    “Parking is not only an amenity but a valuable commodity in modern life.”

    “

    http://www.scotsman.com/news/dundee-parking-fine-woman-declared-bankrupt-with-37-000-debts-1-4585558

    Posted 6 years ago #

  24. crowriver
    Member

    "The 29-year-old had taken to parking her car in the city’s Waterfront without a permit. She claimed she had a right to park in the area as she was living there at the time."

    The Sheriff has disabused her of that belief it would appear.

    “She was offered a permit by the factors (at a reasonable charge I think) but she refused on principle.”

    There you go. Another "it's my car I can park where I like" type bites the dust.

    Posted 6 years ago #

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