A cancer nurse whose busy shifts prevented her from changing parking slots after reaching the time limits has managed to accumulate more than £700 ($920) in fines because of it.
And now she has slammed the “immoral” city council for it.
Forty-seven-year-old Louise Amery works at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, East Sussex, as a chemotherapy specialist. When the hospital car park is full, she has no choice but to use street parking.
However, the agency worker complains that she gets ticketed a lot of times because the only street-level parking available nearby have four-hour maximum stays.
She tries to move her car during her 45-minute lunch breaks but because of her heavy workload, she often can’t do so.
Now the council has threatened her with legal action over unpaid fees while she fired back at them for making hospital staff and patients a “mint” to charge fees from. It doesn’t help that Amery has been facing financial problems since Christmas.
She has been feverishly trying to contact council staff over the phone to arrange a payment plan ever since her debts “spiraled out of control.” But after only getting an answering machine after all her efforts, she couldn’t help but burst into tears.
She said: “I do think it’s immoral what they do around the hospital with the parking. There’s some hospital parking but that’s always full so I’m forced to park on the street. The parking bays are available from 8 am – there are 11-hour bays which are generally always gone.
“They have these four-hour bays where I’m physically forced to move my car during my break times. I get 45 minutes for a ten-hour day and it’s a stressful job. You get that break to just debrief a bit and eat lunch.
“I feel that, ‘Okay fair and square, I’ve not followed parking restrictions so I’ve got ticketed.’ I can see it logically. But morally, I think there should be some concession for staff parking but more importantly [for the hospital’s] patients.”
Public transport is not an option because it would only double her travel time. Because she’s an agency worker, she can’t get a staff permit.
She added: “I’m not alone in being ticketed or being fearful of being ticketed. They are making a mint out of quite vulnerable people. They could do more 11-hour bays and that will sort it all out.
“I’ve known the debt is mounting and I don’t know where to pay first, and they won’t speak to me. I don’t have hundreds of pounds floating around as a nurse. I won’t go out, I will cut down on spending on food. I haven’t planned a holiday because I haven’t got the money.
“I’ve tried to tell the council I’ll be able to pay it all off in the future, but I can’t get through to anyone, it is all automated messages. One day I called four times and it just rang out. I burst into tears.
“My debt has been passed to a collection agency and now it has gone up from £35 per ticket to £100 each. I’m just being bounced around by everyone.
“Most of my tickets were given when I was late to move the car around lunchtime, but there were a few days when I forgot to put money in. I am not contesting the ticketing itself, I don’t have that money to spare.”
In the meantime, a spokesman for the Brighton and Hove City council said: “We value our hard-working nurses and hospital staff and would always try to help and give advice with financial difficulties relating to parking tickets, so it would be helpful to know when Ms. Amery contacted the council and see the email she received.
“The issue of parking and the issuing of parking tickets takes place without knowing who owns the vehicle or what their profession may or may not be, as was the case here.
“If someone illegally parks then they will receive a ticket, and that is the same for everyone. There is a clear appeals process in place which is outlined on the tickets which we’d suggest the nurse follows.
“There are hundreds of staff who work at the hospital and are probably in the same situation. We would suggest she speaks to her manager and other hospital colleagues to find out what parking arrangements they make and also ask the hospital itself if they provide staff parking.”
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