Millions of us do it every day and it should be such a simple thing, parking the car. But from sky-high charges to impossible-to-work meters and over-zealous parking attendants and astronomical fines, it’s now far from straight forward.
Tonight a new documentary reveals the horror stories facing people, including a nurse who was fined after working a 13-hour shift - because the maximum stay in the car park was 12 hours.
Emma Chapman, a nurse from Essex, was issued two parking fines in the same week. She has already paid £12.90 for the 12 maximum stay, but her shift often lasts at least an hour longer than that, leaving her liable for a ticket.
Emma, 40, says: “I was so angry I was crying because I just couldn’t believe that they just left me with a ticket. The last thing I want in my head is the stress of worrying about my car being ticketed.”
Many nurses who work at Queens Hospital in Romford have to go through the same, only being allowed to pay for the maximum 12 hour stay, despite having longer shifts.
Emma, 40, says: "I’ve had two parking tickets which equates to £80, and that’s a good four or five hours for me.
“But for some people, that’s a whole 12 hour shift to pay for the car parking tickets, and I find that disgusting.”
According to ITV1’s Tonight programme the parking industry is booming, with local authorities raking in almost £1.8billion in only a year. With a third of cars on the road just to find parking, the number of car park searches increased more than 147% in the last four years.
And with the NHS in a national crisis, hospital parking charges have become a major issue.
Emma worries whether nurses will be able to put up with the constant fines. “We’re trying to retain staff at the moment, if they’re slapping tickets on nurses cars, where’s their incentive for a nurse to come back and do that extra shift?
“The 12 hour parking rule is not working for the 13 to 14 hours that we work in this highly stressful environment. And then when we come out to the car park to see a ticket on our car. It is just the most demoralising thing to see.”
Tonight: Britain’s Parking Nightmares, on Thursday 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX
