Cloned Number Plates...just a word of warning!

[ey_tony]

Fully get your point here about paying for parking in hospitals....and here comes the dreaded...however... One of the main reasons hospitals or indeed any amenity charge for parking is because usually what happens is people park there then pipper off to work for the day leaving no parking spaces available to hospital goers.
I live beside a major hospital and have,thankfully, free parking on our road (road is too small and narrow to install paid parking). This however means that vehicles park on the road and are gone to the hospital for the day (cos its free) , sometimes across driveways and on more than one occasion blocking the end of the road to the point that bin lorries had no access resulting in non collection of bins.
So free parking at hospitals may still result in no parking availability.

I fully see your point. I had reason to visit Newcastle Eye Infirmary a couple of years ago while visiting my caravan in the North East. I have a Blue Badge and as long as I registered at the reception desk I was allowed to park without limit. It was very busy and they had a people controlling the car parking.
Surely it wouldn't take much thought to take one's appointment letter or receive a proof of injury slip to the reception so that their car vehicle plate could be registered as a genuine case for allowing parking.

Anyone else would be given a penalty charge by someone employed to issue tickets to parking cheats. The revenue raised would likely pay their wages and would keep the hospital parks clear of parking cheats.
I'm sure there must be ways

 

[ey_tony]

Morrisons in ross-on-wye had free parking for years and people would park there and go into town as well as shop at morrisons. The carpark is huge so not really a problem, it was normally quite full but you could get a space.

Someone in management decided to implement a paid system where you got your money back if you bought something in morrisons to stop people parking and going into town. So they installed the pay and display machines and all the expense of monitoring etc.

As soon as it was implemented, everyone abandoned Morrisons. Literally decimated their trade overnight. People voted with their feet (and cars).

Their trade dropped so much that after 2 weeks they abandoned the plan to charge and put covers over the brand new pay and display.

I have my caravan sited up in the North East and occasionally we have visited one particular Morrisons store not far from where our caravan is sited and it used the same method of pay and display and get your money returned so I suspect it was a management directive.

I don't know whether it's still in force but I don't think people objected to paying it and those who didn't buy anything got their parking for 50p.

Most supermarket car parks now limit parking to 90 minutes which seems fair enough to me.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

I have no problem with charges for car parking - they need to be built, maintained, cleaned, insured and the land on which they sit has an alternative economic use value.

Hospitals are no different - given the choice I will happily pay a couple of ££ to park the car rather than waste time and money on possibly inconvenient and expensive public transport.

However there is a difference between a fair and exploitative charge. Some hospitals rightly recognise they need to discount for repeat visits vs occasional use.

However prices charged for most car parking is too high - particularly for those with high occupancy like hospitals.

• The average car parking space is 12sq m - about 25% of the size of a modest 1 bed flat.
• My local large hospital charges £1-2 per hour depending on length of stay.
• Assuming each space is used for 12 hours per day, the total revenue per parking space is (say) £20 per day = £7300 pa.
• As a car parking space is ~25% the size of a small flat, this is equivalent to ~£30k pa rental - the sort of price paid for a premium central London location.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

I recently read an article where a driver drove into Bristol airport car park to collect his wife, he had to stop a temporary traffic light on red, while waiting for it to change his wife came out, & as he was opposite the exit, she got in the car. When the lights changed they drove off, days later they received a fine. Probably because he didn't need to park, so subsequently he hadn't bought a ticket, as there was no need.

Having often used Bristol airport I recall there are signs saying no stopping - I assume well intentioned to avoid congestion on access roads, less so to force the use of the overpriced pick up/drop off parking area.

We now pay more for the incidentals associated with air travel than the flight itself - hold baggage, priority boarding, car parking, pick up/drop off charges, in terminal catering etc.

I blame the budgeted airlines - for the airports the easier option is screw the traveller rather than face off EasyJet and Ryanair.

 

[paulrbarnard]

I recently read an article where a driver drove into Bristol airport car park to collect his wife, he had to stop a temporary traffic light on red, while waiting for it to change his wife came out, & as he was opposite the exit, she got in the car. When the lights changed they drove off, days later they received a fine. Probably because he didn't need to park, so subsequently he hadn't bought a ticket, as there was no need.

There are signs all through the Bristol airport roads saying no drop off or pick up. It used to be a night mare with people stopping on the roads to do just that. They now have cameras that see people getting in and out on the road and automatically send a notice. I can see why the person fell foul of this with the temporarily lights practically a permanent fixture. Bristol drop off is notoriously expensive.

 

[Fergie 307]

When my Dad was on his last legs, he was in QA Hospital Portsmouth. The ward staff would give me a chit that gave me reduced parking by about 80% which I thought was fair.

Similar arrangement at Norfolk and Norwich hospital, but I think with the chit from the ward it was actually free.