Call for hospital bosses to ditch new parking system

Campaigners are calling on the trust which runs Lincolnshire’s primary hospitals to ditch a parking new system beset by issues and return to the old barriers.

Sue McQuinn, of Grantham, has launched the change.org petition called “ULHT – Stop using Parking Eye!” after seeing first hand the problems caused by the new ParkingEye system installed by United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT)  partnered with ParkingEye to introduce a new automatic number plate recognition system in November 2018.

Petition organiser Sue McQuinn.

But broken machines, faulty systems and long queues of people trying to pay meant that fees were waived by the hospitals.

The fees were recently reintroduced at the hospitals– however, many visitors are still reporting issues.

In her petition, which calls for the previous barrier system to be re-introduced, Sue says: “The ParkingEye payment system introduced at ULHT hospital car parks is not fit for purpose.

“The system is causing unnecessary stress for people who are already stressed. No one visits a hospital for fun!

“Please see sense and bring back the previous barrier system, it wasn’t perfect but it was so much better than ParkingEye.”

She told Local Democracy Reporter Daniel Jaines that she regularly visits all three hospitals as both a patient and supporting her partner.

“When parking eye was first introduced I began to see, almost at once, that people were having problems.

“I had some answers and having pushed for the system to be suspended, I was pleased when that happened. However, it’s been reintroduced and most of the issues are still there.”

Ian Hayden, facilities manager at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust said: “As with any new system there have been teething problems while we get it embedded. We would like to thank everyone for their co-operation while we have been working through the initial technical issues.

“The previous barrier system caused delays, didn’t always work and was extremely expensive to maintain. We have been working with ParkingEye on the new system to install additional payment kiosks and better lighting and canopies around some of the payment kiosks.

“Whilst this has taken some time to resolve, we are confident that the new system is now working well and improving traffic flow.”

SUBSCRIBE TO LOCAL DEMOCRACY WEEKLY, our exclusive email newsletter with highlights from coverage every week, as well as insights and analysis from our local democracy reporters.