The private motor car is, of course, an environmental vandal which needs to be driven out of our towns and cities for the good of the planet and for the benefit of residents who are being killed by traffic fumes. We know this because we keep being told by some of those on the left that parking charges, congestion charges and fines must all be ramped up and the proceeds used to improve public transport and encourage cycling and walking.
But there seems to be an exception. When the motorists in question are NHS staff, their fondness for their cars ceases to be an outrage. On the contrary, it is a human right for them to be able to drive to work and park their cars for free when they get there.
When the motorists in question are NHS staff, their fondness for their cars ceases to be an outrage
This morning, health secretary Sajid Javid has announced that the temporary reprieve on hospital parking for NHS staff introduced in July 2020 for the duration of the pandemic is to end on Friday. The perk, it turns out, has cost the taxpayer £130 million. With the pandemic well beyond its critical phase and public debts needing to be repaid, it might seem a straightforward and uncontroversial matter that the free parking be withdrawn.
But not a bit of it. On the contrary, public sector unions are outraged. ‘Charging the NHS staff who’ve risked their lives during the pandemic to park at work is a sick joke,’ says Rachel Harrison of the GMB union. ‘The government must now legislate for free hospital staff parking once and for all.’
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady weighed in as well, saying ‘Our amazing NHS key workers put their lives on the line to get us through this pandemic. Scrapping free car parking in the middle of a cost of living crisis is a lousy way to repay that service.’
It turns out that most hospitals will retain arrangements for overnight staff who have no other way to get to work. But why should NHS staff have a perk of free workplace parking when taxes, levies and charges are being piled on other workers? It is one thing to be a doctor who needs to use a vehicle for emergency call-outs; it is quite another being a receptionist in outpatients, with predictable, daytime working hours. If the rest of us need to be encouraged to take the bus, I don’t see why the same should not apply to the vast majority of NHS workers.
What the public sector unions appear to want is a Soviet-style society where their members are granted all kinds of privileges which are denied to everyone else. Some will probably want their own supermarkets and leisure centres next, where NHS workers will not have to mix with grubby private sector workers.
It costs money to provide workplace parking, especially at hospitals which often occupy dense, city centre sites. Fine, some NHS staff might choose to drive to work, but there is no reason why they should not be expected to pay for the privilege through reasonable charges. As we are always told, every penny raised by the NHS is another penny to go to patient care.
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