Derriford Hospital Car Parking
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Re:
#182: - That's a bit of a harsh statement. I'm unsure as to your understanding of the issues here; I understand there are about 6500 employees at Derriford. About 1000 staff parking spaces that are in active use are to be removed by June, and the cost of parking is to go up for staff by 105% - not only are staff aggrieved at the enforced increase, but there is genuine concern at the loss of so much parking capacity. If you thought your journey to retail was difficult, how much worse will it be when this kicks in? Derriford staff do a fantastic job, they are a specialist centre for so many different procedures that saves lives all day every day and the Westcountry could not cope without them.
Re: Re:
I work in the city centre, and to park my car for my 8 hour work day costs:
£1.20 up to 1 hour
£2.20 up to 2 hours
£3.30 up to 3 hours
£4 up to 6 hours
£8 over 6 hours
The Trust contract out a private parking company (who are all a bunch of con artists) to run their car parks, who in turn decide to install all these fancy, state-of-the-art swipe card/pay-on-exit systems, which cost a fortune to run and break down on a weekly basis (the barriers were up for a whole week recently), so the Trust is forced to pass the cost onto the end users, it's staff.
Apcoa's bog-standard 'pay £1.20 on exit' system worked fine and probable cost next to nothing to maintain.
Perhaps if the cost of parking is to increase to £44.50 a month, we should get a £44.50 cost-of-living increase in our wages each month to cover it?
The Trust used to own Car Park E, then they sold it for a lump sum profit and decided to rent it back, several years later they've now paid more than twice the amount they got for the land in rent, nice move.
And the Vinci thing is right, Vinci are a bunch of crooks and they're useless at fulfilling their security contracts as well. Derriford is supposed to be a Smoke Free site, but there's smokers at every entrance. Vinci, being the security, are supposed to deal with it, but if you approach them and tell them "someone's smoking at the main entrance" which is less than 20 feet away from them, they fob you off, telling you either "by the time we get there they'll have gone" or "well if you're not prepared to confront them why should we?"
Completely useless and a complete waste of money for the Trust.
This is the cancer that's bringing this brilliant hospital down, chronic money wastage by an utterly incompetent management.
Poor public transport is actually not an option
I feel the car parking charge increase is too steep. The public transport in this region could be better. I live in Saltash which has a very limited bus service from Derriford and therefore no choice but to use the car park. The users of the Plymouth site seem to be being discrimated against compared to other NHS facilities within the SW region. The price increase is disgusting.
Sooner or later people will realise what can be achieved if they stick together. I wonder if the time has come.
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Re: car park
#163: stop and think of real reason - car park
You don't seem to have grasped the main issues here. Firstly they are doing away with Bircham park and ride so that is not an option. Secondly, using the George park and Ride is not an option for some because driving 2 miles PAST work and then waiting in the traffic to get back to Derriford (becasue there is no Bus lane) can take up to 45 minutes. The surrounding infrastructure can not support this ill-thought-out excuse for a parking solution. And to add insult to injury, rather than reducing the charges to accomodate this inconvenience, they are charging £49 per month for it.
Moreover, many staff are working parents and have to do the school run beforehand, so walking/cycling or leaving earlier is not an option.