Chris Dobney
Health workers at Lismore Base Hospital may have to pay up to $35 a week for the privilege of parking close to work after Lismore City Council chose to introduce on-street parking fees higher than the hospital’s own car park.
Up until now workers have been able to park for free in the streets around the hospital but despite the recent construction of a new multi-storey car park in the grounds, not all staff will be able to park there.
According the Health Services Union, the hospital yesterday conducted a ballot of 645 staff seeking subsidised parking for $12/week in the new facility, with only 400 passes available to give out.
The remaining staff will be forced to pay $7/day to park in the surrounding streets or walk some distance, often at unsociable hours, to their vehicles, the union says.
HSU’s Jonathan Milman told Echonetdaily there were ‘definitely 245 permanent workers who will go without parking in the hospital. Several hundred more weren’t eligible to even apply because they’re temporary or casual.’
‘Lismore City council is opportunistically – and we believe it’s very greedy – charging almost triple, compared to what the hospital is charging,’ Mr Milman said.
‘They’re charging $70 per pay packet versus $24 from the hospital.’
Greedy
The council has capped parking in Hunter Street, which runs alongside the hospital, at two hours, except for 90 places that will be $7 all-day paid parking.
‘It’s well in excess of Lismore CBD, which is $2 for all-day parking. They’re even looking to charge $2 more per day more than the hospital is charging, which is $5 a day. It’s just greedy.’
Mr Milman said that 250 workers currently park in Hunter Street for free every day.
‘Some of them will now have to walk up to two kilometres to work.’
‘Is it going to take someone to be attacked or raped or mugged before council will do something about this? It’s just ridiculous.’
Lismore mayor Jenny Dowell said that if council retained free all-day parking next to the hospital it would see people use street parking avoid paying for the multi-storey car park ‘and therefore we might never get stage two’.
‘That came as a request from health infrastructure,’ she said.
‘It’s really up to the hospital to subsidise its staff to make sure that the weekly rate is comparable to what people are paying in the multi-storey car park,’ she told ABC radio this morning.
‘Council is very, very happy to talk to the staff about that but our negotiations with management and staff have been quite delayed,’ she admitted. I think where the fault has been… is there has been lack of communication between hospital management and their own staff.’
No security
Mayor Dowell said that council would not consider putting on security to ensure staff leaving or arriving in the dark were safe.
‘It is the employer’s responsibility to provide security for staff going to or from work,’ she said.
She added that the turnover of spaces in two-hour zones would be a benefit for patients and visitors.
But while Mr Milman agreed there was ‘better need for patient access’, he said the two-hour restriction won’t be good for patients who attend emergency, many of whom aren’t seen within that timeframe.’
He accepted that the issue had been brought to a head by the state government deciding to split the construction of the car park into two stages.
‘The state government urgently needs to fund stage two of the car park… which would make available another another 270 spaces.
‘But the hospital’s increasing in size so we believe there will still be a need for some staff to park outside. And the government still has not funded stage two.’
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