So Selfish

THIS Mini is repeatedly parked in the car park at the Henley GP surgeries when it shouldn’t be there.

It takes up a valuable space that is designed for use by disabled, elderly and sick people who need to use it.

But when staff challenge him, the driver just swears at them and refuses to move the car.

The car park off York Road has just 23 spaces designed for use by patients with appointments at the Hart and Bell Surgeries.

But it is regularly abused by other people who don’t want to pay to use the official town car parks while they go shopping in the town centre.

In 2017 the surgeries hired a specialist company to enforce parking but scrapped this after seven months due to the number of complaints about unfair tickets.

Staff at the surgeries say the Mini is parked there about 50 per cent of the time.

Sarah Moberly, practice manager at the Hart Surgery, said: “It’s very irritating but I don’t think there is anything we can do legally.

“We get abuse from people we ask not to park — it’s a regular thing — but this one particular man is just all the time. When anyone says anything he just challenges us. When we tell him anything he swears at us and tells us to ‘F’ off.

“We stick letters on his car but he continues to leave it there day in, day out. We have had so many emails complaining about him.

“The car park is not big enough for everyone so our objective is to allow people who need it to park there — disabled people and people who can’t walk up the road.

“We have more than 20,000 patients between us and the car park is just too small.”

Dr Matt Norman, of the Bell Surgery, said: “The majority of patients are considerate of the car park.

“It used to be only used for one building but now there are two surgeries and the number of patients has doubled.

Practice manager Louise West said: “The Bell Surgery would like to thank everyone who walks from home if they are really local or parks in town and walks to the surgery to attend their appointment and we thank our York Road neighbours for being considerate with their parking.

“We would like to encourage anyone who is able to use one of the town car parks to do so and walk to the surgery for their appointment, which will release spaces in the car park for our frail, elderly, disabled and acutely unwell patients.

“We have a small car park that we share with the Hart Surgery so parking is very limited and we rely on patients being considerate and
community-spirited.”

When the surgeries introduced the enforcement system patients were required to enter their vehicle’s registration details on a touchpad at reception to receive a maximum of 90 minutes of free parking.

The car park was monitored by Smart Parking, which used automatic numberplate recognition to track vehicles going in and out of the site. Patients were allowed a 15-minute grace period for dropping off or picking up other people.

However, the contract with the company was scrapped after staff were bombarded with complaints from patients about being fined unfairly.

Mrs Moberly said the surgeries didn’t want this to happen again.

She said: “It was only us trying to help but it didn’t work. People wrote hate letters to us. It caused so many complaints and so much admin.

“People would say they hadn’t seen the sign or they had written their numberplate down wrong or they had only come in to get a
prescription

“The company benefited from fining people but we had quite vulnerable people getting quite threatening letters, which we didn’t want.”

About a dozen Hart Surgery staff began parking elsewhere in 2019 to enable more availability but this means they sometimes have to pay or there are other issues at certain times of the year.

Mrs Moberly said: “It’s tough in the winter because we finish when it’s dark and some staff don’t feel comfortable walking very far at that time.”

On October 1 GP practices will be required to open until 8pm on some weekdays and some Saturdays.

Mrs Moberly said: “It might affect the car park even more. A lot of staff already work until late even without patients being here.

“We won’t be paid extra for it and we won’t get more staff so we’ll just be spreading ourselves more thinly.

“The message we want to get across to people is if you’re able to walk from elsewhere, please leave the space for those who need it.

“GPs aren’t technically obliged to have parking so at least we have some, which is better than nothing but we just wish people could park who need it.”

Jonathan Dinsdale, senior associate in the dispute resolution team at law firm Blandy & Blandy, said: “Unauthorised parking on private land can be a real headache. The police do not have jurisdiction to deal with the problem and the issue can only be dealt with under the civil law of trespass and nuisance.

“Though not always visually attractive, fences, gates, collapsible bollards and parking ramps will help deter trespassers. One downside is that these are susceptible to vandalism and can be expensive to maintain.

“Although tempting to take matters into your own hands, by moving the vehicle yourself, this should be avoided due to the fact that it could result in criminal liability should the vehicle be damaged.”