Well, no. Not if you want to drive there:
Just 40 spaces have been included in the plans, following lobbying by the Croydon Council's previous chief exec, despite an estimated 3,000 visitors a week.Whoops! And that doesn't includes staff parking, because there isn't any of that:
At the moment, the 40 spaces included in the planning permission will be reserved for patients and ambulances – staff will have to park elsewhere in the town during their shifts.So, if you work unsociable shifts and can’t therefore depend on public transport, too bad!
Tarsem Flora, a local architect and the group's chairman, said: "We are looking at double the number of visitors to the hospital but no parking provision. It will be a nightmare."Is it idiocy? It's an existential question, as @patently observed:
But no. It’s just the dogma of the ‘save the earth!’ brigade once more:
In a letter seen by the Advertiser, the then chief executive of Croydon Council, Jon Rouse, argued Purley had a high "public transport accessibility level" which meant planning policy "encouraged a reduction in onsite parking provision". He also said the town's public car parks could cater for the hospital's visitors.And the staff? Oh, but why would you care?
However, Purley's residents are concerned the number of people coming to use the new hospital will be far higher than the number using the old. They fear the lack of spaces will result in irresponsible and dangerous parking throughout the town.Ain't ‘sustainable policies’ grand?
What the locals want and what the council want have become two distinct things for a long time now everywhere.
ReplyDeleteIn a letter seen by the Advertiser, the then chief executive of Croydon Council, Jon Rouse, argued Purley had a high "public transport accessibility level" which meant planning policy "encouraged a reduction in onsite parking provision".
ReplyDeleteIn other words, to put it bluntly, fuck 'em.
The problem with people like this - and there are legions of them - is that they would be steamrolled in the private sector by competitors. In the pubic sector, they can hide like weevils in flour.
And the only way to get weevils out of flour is to throw the lot out.
Mr Rouse is no longer CEO at Croydon. Now he is plain old Director General for Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships at the Department of Health.
We need people of this calibre who made places like Croydon what they are today.
And as Mrs 20 sets off for another poorly-paid night shift at a certain London hospital, I really wish I had cheered her up by reminding her that without a Director General for Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships at the Department of Health, why, where would she be?
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that the Director General for Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships at the Department of Health's job has not been a victim of the vicious cuts and the Bonfire of the Qangos!
From April 2013, the Permanent Secretary will oversee five Directors General, including the new appointment of Jon Rouse.
Verily, mine cup runneth over.
@ 20 Rothmans,
ReplyDeleteOne of the most acute comments I have ever read on any blog:
"The problem with people like this - and there are legions of them - is that they would be steamrolled in the private sector by competitors. In the pubic sector, they can hide like weevils in flour."
Thanks.
Paul
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that the Director General for Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships at the Department of Health's job has not been a victim of the vicious cuts...
ReplyDeleteYeah, and strange too how you never see Channel4 News and the Beeb chasing after them in the street demanding they give up their pensions and knighthoods.
Wexham Park Hospital, 2 miles out of Slough also doesn't allocate enough parking spaces for staff. They worked with the council, going through the courts spending our money, to shut down a farmer who had started a modest £5 a day parking operation in his field opposite (not visible from the road so not an eyesore, by the way).
ReplyDeleteMost of the nearest street parking has just been made 2 hours only (so Sweet FA use if you need to go into A&E or are staff) and double yellow lines have recently eradicated much of the rest.
The hospital's own car park is much more expensive and usually full on a weekday.
Their attitude towards patients and staff seems to consist of two fingers... vigorously inserted.
Worrying.
ReplyDeleteBut I do hope there will always be room found to park the chauffeur driven Zils for those times when a celebrity health administrator needs to be seen to be more 'front line' or politician pops by for a 'good news for the plebs' photo-op ?
Croydon is a bloody nightmare for cars and parking. Public transport, although numerous, is congested and some of the natives - well, no comment.
ReplyDeleteThe council, especially Sutton council are money grabbing wasteful scum.
I bet when the residents' complain of parking by visitors' to the hospital, their solution is to impose a 'Controlled Parking Zone' and charge the locals for parking their cars outside their own homes. The visitors will be just fined. How do I know this ? Because its what I have seen happen with these pigs loads of times.
Councils love to spend and waste. The more you give them, the more they waste, and the bigger their pensions get.
"What the locals want and what the council want have become two distinct things for a long time now everywhere."
ReplyDeleteThe long march through the institutions started here, after all...
"We need people of this calibre who made places like Croydon what they are today."
He's working on it!
"They worked with the council, going through the courts spending our money, to shut down a farmer who had started a modest £5 a day parking operation in his field opposite..."
FFS!
"I bet when the residents' complain of parking by visitors' to the hospital, their solution is to impose a 'Controlled Parking Zone' ..."
I've got another post coming up on that!
Recently a new agricultural college building was put up in my home town.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't provide any parking places for students.
It didn't seem to occur to them that agricultural students might, just possibly might, come in from remote rural areas where public transport doesn't exist.
At the start of term, all the residential roads around the college were choked with parked cars belonging to the students.
Cue outrage from local council - how could they possibly have seen this coming? Life is so unfair...