Edinburgh Royal Infirmary parking permits all dished out before all staff applications even considered

Parking permits for staff at the city’s Royal Infirmary have been snapped up before all applications for in-demand spaces could even be considered, the Evening News can reveal.
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Staff permits will be required for staff parking at the site from Monday, January 17 in a bid to tackle significant delays at the site in recent months, which affected patients, visitors and staff as well as blue light services.

The reintroduction of permits follows reports of staff travelling to the site stuck in three-mile queues and of some arriving hours before their shifts to get a space and avoid having to walk off campus in the dark.

Parking permits dished out before all applications processedParking permits dished out before all applications processed
Parking permits dished out before all applications processed
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But the move has prompted fears that frustrated staff could quit as it’s claimed the changes will add significantly to many people's journeys to work.

Many workers want the scheme scrapped and warned it could be a shambles if health bosses went ahead with the scheme before all applications could be properly processed.

In a message to all staff on Friday afternoon health chiefs wrote that parking teams are working through remaining applications as quickly as possible but stated all available permits so far were already allocated.

The staff message said teams had been inundated ahead of the scheme coming into effect, meaning some who have put in a bid for a permit haven’t even been considered yet as parking teams struggle to wade through applications.

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The memo read: “At this stage we have reached capacity with the permits we currently have available.

“Additional permit capacity will become available when the new car park facility opens, and as soon as we have more information on this it will be shared with staff.”

It added that parking teams will be ‘continually assessing overall use of the campus car parks and traffic flow to try and maximise the number of permits that we can allocate to staff whether these are individual or part of the car-share scheme.”

NHS Lothian says the permits are being allocated according to a points system taking into account factors including whether staff have to work at more than one location, the number of journey legs from a staff member's home and any caring responsibilities. A free shuttle bus is to be provided between Sheriffhall park-and-ride and the hospital.

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