QEH offers amnesty after parking fine fury
Kings Lynn Today
AN OUTCRY over the enforcement of parking charges at Lynn's Queen Elizabeth Hospital has seen an amnesty on fines for last week.
Staff and visitors were outraged at receiving £40 parking fines for not having a valid parking ticket or season ticket for the QEH car park. An enforcement company began working at the hospital earlier this month but the honeymoon period is over and last week it issued thousands of pounds of fines.
Now the QEH will fork out £2,000 to foot the bill for the amnesty after complaints poured in from staff and visitors.
Enforcing the parking rules and issuing fines met with a flood of criticism, including from a night nurse who was fined £40 for not having a season ticket after hers ran out at the end of September."It's ridiculous, the ticket office is open between 9.15am and 3.15pm – but I work nights so trying to renew my season ticket was a problem.
"I stayed behind almost two hours after my shift this week to get a new pass, and when I got back to my car I had a £40 ticket," she said.
But under the amnesty, announced on Friday, she will not have to pay the fine – and nor will anyone else who received a ticket up to Thursday.
Hospital chief executive Ruth May said: "Our new parking policy has been widely publicised among our own staff and the public. A number of penalty tickets have been issued appropriately this week, but it seems there has been a great deal of confusion.
"After discussing this matter with senior staff, we have agreed that fines imposed up until Thursday will be waived as a one-off gesture of goodwill. However, from Friday, any penalty tickets will be enforced in the normal way," added Mrs May.
Drivers who received a parking ticket should take it to the hospital's finance department, giving details of the car and those who have already paid the fine should submit details of when the ticket was received and the fine paid.
Money from parking fines goes to the private enforcement company, but the hospital hopes motorists will be deterred from not buying a ticket so the income from the ticket machines, which does go to the QEH, will increase.
AN OUTCRY over the enforcement of parking charges at Lynn's Queen Elizabeth Hospital has seen an amnesty on fines for last week.
Staff and visitors were outraged at receiving £40 parking fines for not having a valid parking ticket or season ticket for the QEH car park. An enforcement company began working at the hospital earlier this month but the honeymoon period is over and last week it issued thousands of pounds of fines.
Now the QEH will fork out £2,000 to foot the bill for the amnesty after complaints poured in from staff and visitors.
Enforcing the parking rules and issuing fines met with a flood of criticism, including from a night nurse who was fined £40 for not having a season ticket after hers ran out at the end of September."It's ridiculous, the ticket office is open between 9.15am and 3.15pm – but I work nights so trying to renew my season ticket was a problem.
"I stayed behind almost two hours after my shift this week to get a new pass, and when I got back to my car I had a £40 ticket," she said.
But under the amnesty, announced on Friday, she will not have to pay the fine – and nor will anyone else who received a ticket up to Thursday.
Hospital chief executive Ruth May said: "Our new parking policy has been widely publicised among our own staff and the public. A number of penalty tickets have been issued appropriately this week, but it seems there has been a great deal of confusion.
"After discussing this matter with senior staff, we have agreed that fines imposed up until Thursday will be waived as a one-off gesture of goodwill. However, from Friday, any penalty tickets will be enforced in the normal way," added Mrs May.
Drivers who received a parking ticket should take it to the hospital's finance department, giving details of the car and those who have already paid the fine should submit details of when the ticket was received and the fine paid.
Money from parking fines goes to the private enforcement company, but the hospital hopes motorists will be deterred from not buying a ticket so the income from the ticket machines, which does go to the QEH, will increase.
posted by Neil Herron at 11:20 AM
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