4/1/2007
Letters
Hospital parking problem could get even worseI don’t know any local councillor who has spent 18 years ‘working on a solution’ to Frimley Park Hospital’s parking problems.
However, Emil Janson who made this claim, (Letters, December 29), should be glad to know that local councils have
Co-operated with the hospital since 1975 to ameliorate its lack of parking capacity.
Of real concern is the government-inspired diktat that all large hospitals should have a catchment area of 600,000 people. Frimley Park bases its confidence in the future on having 350,000, while its neighbouring hospitals have ‘only’ 300,000.
Closure of a sister hospital could therefore result in double the amount of patients, double the amount of visitors and increased staff all parking on Frimley’s roads to avoid paying.
The situation has been exacerbated as parking permits have been withdrawn from staff working within 20 minutes’ walk. Presumably, this frees up spaces for visitors, who pay more.
I have always supported Frimley Park’s attempts to improve its parking capacity but regretted its decision to build over one of its surface car parks. Frimley Park has proved that, with government targets to meet and local people to live alongside, no man can serve two masters.
Hospital staff cannot be expected to leave cars at home if they have to take children to school, if it is raining, if they are going shopping after work, or if they would have to walk home in the dark. However, we can expect their employers to let them park on site.
I am hopeful that a solution for Frimley’s residents is emerging with the introduction of decriminalised parking enforcement but, if other hospitals or their departments close down, the problem of where to park will worsen.
My Conservative colleagues and I have started a petition to save Surrey hospitals’ A&E departments and, as this letter makes plain, it is in the interest of all Frimley residents to sign.
Cllr Ian Sams
Frimley
First printed in:
Aldershot News and Mail
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