Recently 300 people signed a petition to stop the staff of the St Helier Hospital (UK) to park outside the hospital. Local residents that live close to the hospital are fed up with hospital employees and visitors parking in the nearby residential areas. And who can blame them? If the streets are always crowded, traffic is moving slowly because of people trying to find a parking space and especially when you can’t even find a parking space near your own house, it’s time for action.
That’s exactly what the residents must have thought. The signed petition is handed to the hospital by Counsillor Dave Calaghan and MP Tom Brake. They think that the petition will have some sort of influence on the parking situation, but perhaps it could take a while before there will be actual changes.
Hospital director of corporate infrastructure Nick Gorvett assures that he will take the complaints of the residents in consideration, and that there will be changes in the future. But first, they have to see what they can and want to do about this situation.
Mr. Gorvett says that he realizes that it must be annoying for the residents when staff and visitors of the hospital always park in the streets and he wants to work together with the council to solve the issue. The first step the hospital will take is to talk to their staff about parking in the residential area; that they should try to park on-site as much as possible and if they do park in the residential area they should be considerate to the people who live there. This means not blocking other cars or double park their vehicles.
For the past three years the hospital already freezed the charges in their parking facility and are trying to encourage staff to use different types of transportation, likes buses and bikes. Also, they run shuttle buses between hospital sites on a regular basis so staff won’t have to drive from one to the other.
Source: http://www.suttonguardian.co.uk/news/10113911.300_people_sign_parking_petition
