Nurses charged almost £200 a month just to park their cars at work

[HOBIE]

For nearly 3years I used to get up at 4. Drive all the way from Tyneside & work in the ctr of London. You couldn't drive along oxford st after 9. Yes I was getting paid for this but would not like to be doing it now. Wages or ways to improve qualifications that's the only thing that would get me to live down there 🙂

 

[Northerner]

...Surely making sure the population can get to work and benefit from it should be high on the agenda for any government.

My first act when I take over the world will be all public transport fares for those going to work are eliminated and paid for from the tax they pay instead.

I blame Thatcher. When I lived in Sheffield public transport was subsidised by the rates/council tax, meaning that fares were fixed at 1975 levels. Maximum fare to the very edge of the city was 14p, but most fares were 5/6p. Because the transport was so cheap you never had to worry about finding your fare, it was far more economically sensible to use public transport than a car, there were loads of frequent buses anywhere, people were able to take low-paid jobs across South Yorkshire because commuting costs were not a consideration. There was far less traffic with people not using their cars, so less pollution and no rush hour gridlock.

Thatcher then decided that the buses should be deregulated. In Sheffield this meant that fares increased by 2,000% overnight, bus companies started up using decrepit old vehicles competing on busy routes - they would drive past a stop that didn't have enough passengers to beat another bus to a busier stop, and they put out more pollution. People started using their cars instead and the roads got clogged. People could no longer afford to take low-paid jobs across town.

And did we save anything on our taxes? Of course not! Simply one of the most stupid moves ever taken, ruining something that worked really well for everyone. And what do we have now? Anywhere you go practically every bus is run by one or two companies - no competition, so no incentive to improve services and keep fares down.

 

[Mark T]

For nearly 3years I used to get up at 4. Drive all the way from Tyneside & work in the ctr of London. You couldn't drive along oxford st after 9. Yes I was getting paid for this but would not like to be doing it now. Wages or ways to improve qualifications that's the only thing that would get me to live down there 🙂

Well, assuming a vehicle that does about 40 mpg (OK a bike does much more then this), that trip would probably take you about 5 hours these days with traffic even at 4am and would cost you about £100 per round trip.

5 days per week, 4 week month -> £2000

Personally I couldn't give up that much of my family life to do something like that. So it's a good thing I work less than 20 minutes walk (just over the mile) from my house.

But back on topic, I think hospitals should be forced to provide either parking or transport arrangements for their staff. You can't force staff to live within walking distance since (a) especially in the south east, it's too expensive (b) my understanding is that a nurse can be asked to work at a range of hospitals within a given area.

 

[Pigeon]

In Nottingham it's probably worse as they have additional charges.
http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/wpl

actually the NHS is exempt from the workplace parking levy. Not that it's easy to park at the hospitals in Nottingham either.

Funnily enough, at the Boots head office half of the site comes under the workplace parking levy and half doesn't (because it's based on distance from the town centre). Guess it's supercompetitive to park in the cheap half there! BUT they are justifying the parking levy to pay for the tram extension, which will improve access to a lot of workplaces in the city, including one of the hospitals.

 

[ypauly]

actually the NHS is exempt from the workplace parking levy. Not that it's easy to park at the hospitals in Nottingham either.

Funnily enough, at the Boots head office half of the site comes under the workplace parking levy and half doesn't (because it's based on distance from the town centre). Guess it's supercompetitive to park in the cheap half there! BUT they are justifying the parking levy to pay for the tram extension, which will improve access to a lot of workplaces in the city, including one of the hospitals.

You learn something new every day lol


Thanks