MP told new spaces would see hospital parking charges halved

[dutchman]

A Coventry MP has been promised the cost of parking at the city’s University Hospital will halve if bosses there get the go-ahead to add more spaces.



Geoffrey Robinson has been meeting with the hospital’s Chief Exective Officer, Andy Hardy, after they revealed they had signed a new deal with the people running the car park without asking the public what they thought first.

At the moment the car park raises around £2.7 million a year – one of the highest amounts in the country – with a high-profile campaign to have charging abolished.

The NHS Trust revealed a few weeks ago that it was about to apply for a new entrance to the site that would also mean the creation of 650 new parking spots.

Mr Robinson says he’s been pleasantly surprised by the outcome of the meeting and will now start to lobby the council over the proposals:

“They said if the council would give us car parking on the Clifford Bridge Road side of the site, we could then, this is their commitment, we could then reduce by half the cost of the car parking to the public.”

“I said it’s a great deal, I’ll take it up with the council to see what stands in the way of them granting that – no development involved, no private sector, it is just for the benefit of people using the hospital.

As well as the application, Andy Hardy has also confirmed Warwick University students are carrying out a review of parking charges:

“We’ve commissioned a number of their International MBA students to look at the car parking requirements at the hospital, both in terms of numbers and the prices that would then result in us needing to charge to cover our costs – that is due to report by the end of March.”

“Car parking is an issue, we know it’s an issue, it’s an issue for our staff as well, so we’re getting some extra information in, looking to make an informed decision, and we’re looking to have that decision in a relatively short timescale now.”

A date is yet to be set to hear the plans for the second entrance and the extra parking spaces.

Jackanory, Jackanory, Jackanory...

[StevieG]

Talk about going round the bloody houses
Surely they know the score as far as the public are concerned but the best is that these
are getting away with it

[rebbonk]

Andy Hardy: “We’ve commissioned a number of their International MBA students to look at the car parking requirements at the hospital, both in terms of numbers and the prices that would then result in us needing to charge to cover our costs – that is due to report by the end of March.”

me! Hardly rocket science is it? I know MBA projects are hard to come by...