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Motorists use hospital as a park-and-ride



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Published Date:
31 July 2008
More than half of the drivers using a Preston hospital car park see it as a park-and-ride to get to the city centre – blocking spaces intended for patients and visitors.
More than half of the 541 spaces at the Royal Preston Hospital (RPH) are being used by people parking for longer than five hours.

Hospital bosses believe that many of them are commuters, paying the £1.50 daily rate and then catching a bus to avoid more expense parking charges in the city centre.

Evidence shows that 52% of drivers using the hospital car park stay for more than five hours. At Chorley and South Ribble, only around 30% of people are staying for more than five hours.

RPH parking chiefs are now looking into ways to target drivers using their car parks as an unofficial park-and-ride.

One idea is to introduce a two-tier pricing structure, with an increased cost for longer stays, but with exemptions for patients.

The measures are the latest attempts to resolve parking issues at RPH after Preston Council refused to grant planning permission for a new, larger car park.

At the beginning of July fines were introduced to deal with illegally-parked cars.

Ian Cox, director of facilities at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "People are parking on-site for between seven and eight hours.

"Figures show that most drivers park at Chorley and South Ribble Hospital for up to two hours, but then we have a spike with 30% staying over five hours.

"At Royal Preston Hospital this jumps to 52%, which suggests that drivers are taking advantage of our low, £1.50 daily charge. This means parking spaces for patients and visitors are being clogged up every day.

"Parking is already at a premium and if we are to improve the situation we need to root out these drivers and deter them from parking on-site."

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  • Last Updated: 31 July 2008 8:36 AM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Preston
 
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Nick Rudd,

31/07/2008 10:46:20
That really is the height of cheek or arrogance, however critical you are feeling, but understandable from a geographical point of view, with the official park and rides for Preston in the west (docks) and south (Capital Centre) and the hospital site so close to the M6/A6/M55. The answer is indeed a two-tier pricing system of, say, £1.50 for up to four/five/six hours and then somehting prohibitive to the day-stayers of, say, £10 or £12 for longer than that time. Chances are if you stay on the hospital site you will never have to pay the full whack, as even with waits, appointments should be done and dusted in the £1.50 time span and visitors there for longer can either pop back out to pay £1.50 again or get a cheap pass for an overnight stay (as is the case at Blackpool Vic).
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s2,

31/07/2008 11:03:04
why oh why do the council and residents, who live around the hospital, keep refusing planning for further parking?? these people have obviously never had to leave home an hour before an appointment to make a 15min journey but leave the rest of the time to find a paking space. parking is a disgrace at rph. what is wrong with making any of the car parks multi-story? not everybody can get a bus to the hospital so stop punishing those who need to use the car park.
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s2,

31/07/2008 11:04:32
why oh why do the council and residents, who live around the hospital, keep refusing planning for further parking?? these people have obviously never had to leave home an hour before an appointment to make a 15min journey but leave the rest of the time to find a paking space. parking is a disgrace at rph. what is wrong with making any of the car parks multi-story? not everybody can get a bus to the hospital so stop punishing those who need to use the car park.
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Bill Carson,

Broadgate 31/07/2008 11:27:24
When Sharoe Green Hospital was sold off, why wasn't their provision made for a multi-story carpark? Just a small portion of the vast area of land released should have been retained for this purpose or at least made a contractual obligation for the new developers. Sadly, those ignorant commuters who abuse the present limited parking will only realise the error of their repulsive behaviour when they become hospital patients or visitors themselves. Only then will the added indignity and inconvenience at the time of need, become a reality.
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Gra W,

Preston 31/07/2008 13:05:56
In January I drove my wife to the hospital as she went into labour - but could I get parked! - I ended up dropping her off at the maternity unit and driving all the way to the road behind booths to get a space and then had to run through the entire hospital hoping I hadn't missed anything - not good

One of these days I expect that they will put residents only signs up around the area and then what would I have done!

My wife also works at RPH but still needs to pay for the carpark - but often she can't find a space and has to drive around for ages, something definately needs to be done, esp since they keep building new bits that eat up existing parking areas and bring in new jobs, etc. How about an underground parking area that leads straight into the hospital so that it is not convenient for the nearby bus stops
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Sam Tana,

Ribbleton 31/07/2008 16:59:53
if nothing else, this demonstrates the demand for a park and ride to the north of the city.
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Long live speed limits,

Fylde 31/07/2008 17:25:20
How about putting the charge up to £10 per day and to get a refund you have to show you are visiting someone/taking them into Hospital/picking them up?
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graham nelson,

preston 31/07/2008 21:33:27
park and rides, and multi-storey car parks may be valid points. but the real issue here is this selfish band of drivers who use rph as a cheap car park for non rph matters.
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K Darragh,

leyland 01/08/2008 00:31:47
Love it!How will this be stopped and policed??
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loopi2k,

preston 01/08/2008 01:24:52
my son had a anaphalactic attack back in may and we had to rush him to hospital as he couldn't breath and was losing consiousness, we had to leave the car parked in the middle of the driveway of the carpark as there were no empty spaces and time was running out for us, i was shocked to discover later that alot of the spaces taken on the carpark were for customers of the black bull who couldn't get on the pubs carpark and regulary use the nearest one as booths is shut after 8pm. the situation there is terrible, cars pedestrians and buses all trying to get through, i still shudder now, awful
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