RUH PARKING

[jessica]

Has anyone heard anything about withdrawing students' free parking at RUH? I emailed Lorna to ask, but she is on leave till 1 Oct.
Jessica x

[Craig]

I posted this back in June when I met with Adam Jones, the car parking manager:

He apologises that the news about car parking charges has come as something of a shock - UWE were notified six weeks beforehand, whether that information was successfully filtered down to cohorts, I'm not so sure.

Car parking can be paid as a flat £45.50 fee, or at £3.50 a week, which is roughly a third of what full-time staff pay (£10 a week/1.5% of their annual salary). The charge was brought in due to the "Fair for all, not free-for-all" NHS confederation car parking policy (I have a copy if you'd like a read). This is applicable for all students, including medical students. The only people entitled to free parking are disabled badge holders.

Roughly 120 students currently park on-site, which is a massive number when you take into account how much parking is actually available. The alternative would be to make students apply in the same way as staff, where your entitlement is based on the shifts you do, how far away you live and whether it's on a bus route - even then, this doesn't guarantee you a parking space (as anyone who's used the staff car park after 8am can verify).

Although other sites do not charge students for parking, the most I think you guys can hope for is that UWE will reimburse it as travel expenses. Adam was very approachable, and very helpful, but after speaking with him, I'd struggle to argue that we're any worse than anyone else in the Trust.

I also raised it at the last UWE meeting and people were really quite shocked that students have to pay. But alas, unless there have been any changes (which I've not heard about), the information above should be correct.

[jessica]

Thanks, Craig - I do remember this, but wasn't sure if it was all done and dusted. I'm sure there'll be further discussion (!) and it will be good to hear the decision about reimbursement.
Jessica X

[jessica]

Dear All
I meant to bring this up at GDP today, but forgot. Have made a few phone calls this afternoon about this. The charge for a permit for students is £3.50 per week, which needs to be paid to Pat Robinson (Tel: 821175) in the Facilities Office at Bath &Wessex House near the Traders coffee shop at RUH, or on Mon & Thu at the entrance foyer, where we got our RUH passes.

I also spoke with Denise at the UWE office at RUH and Lorna. Vicki has apparently been working hard to avoid handing over the free permits to the RUH, but was not successful. Also Linda Chapman has been taking an interest from the RUH side, so Lorna suggested I send her an email enquiring about whether there may be a way to refund this cost. Student 1 Stop Shop at UWE will only refund travel costs, not parking charges.

The main message from Lorna is that we must not give the staff at the UWE/RUH office a hard time because it's not their fault! I'm sure none of us would dream of it - but also, I'm not sure how many of us used the permit system anyway. I used to find parking at the St John's car park really easy and never found it was full, so intend to carry on using it, even if I have to find the £3.50 a week, which wouldn't buy me much parking anywhere else, realistically.

Watch this space: I get the feeling this story hasn't ended yet!

Best wishes,
Jessica