University of Birmingham car parking

The situation is dire. Sure more space can be found on the roadside during this current period

Disaster!

1) Clearly the University doesn't care about its staff 2) Anyone driving past the Castle Bromwich Jaguar plant on the A38 over the last year will have noticed how a decent employer in the real world reacts to a car parking problem for their workforce. A new multistorey car park complex and a new road junction have been built! 3) There should be a contractors car park on the old running track site. (Contractors can then eat their sandwiches there without blocking staff spaces. The argument that they need their vehicles near to site for access to tools is risible) 4) The response to this petition will be some nauseating platitude about "Green Hearts" .

We also need bookable visitor spaces, it’s embarrassing to invite guests who have to spend ages searching for a car parking space. We look petty and unprofessional.

There has been a significant lack of foresight into how the amount of building works and increase in contractor numbers would effect UoB staff parking. A massive reduction in spaces, with the removal of whole car parks, combined with poor management of actual space still available (double yellows or hashing in spots that would cause little restriction) has meant that anyone coming in after 9am now has to spend nearly an hour to find a space or park a 20 minute walk away on a side road in Selly Oak. For those that pay for a purple badge through salary sacrifice they are pre-paying for the parking yet not receiving it. For those of us that have child care duties on a morning which prohibit us from getting hear before 9 an additional hour trying to find somewhere to park is unacceptable. Why when planing these new buildings does extra parking, either outside each building or even basement level parking, not be included in the plans to accommodate the staff of that building?

This is a significant problem, and I'm sure it wasn't part of the plan. I recall a communication around Christmas '16 that referred to a UoB webpage that said the total number of parking spaces would be "maintained throughout the programme of works". I think it may have been an old version of https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/estates/Car-Parking-Disruptions/Index.aspx?...true Does anyone have access to UoB's web archive?

If you ask us to pay for parking, parking should be available.

Parking on campus just horrendous! We are having to get in earlier and earlier just to park, the Munrow car park is used by contractors, taking up 2 spaces for 1 vehicle.. and not ticketed. Also the contractors parking on the pavement and "shared area" between Biosciences and Staff House is just dangerous.. yet these contractors are never ticketed.. yet those of us who arrive a bit later due to childcare commitments and NEED a car are ticketed automatically if parked in no parking areas! There seems to be a lot of unfairness. With the upcoming short term closure of the Munrow for demolition, the closure of the lower floor of the multi-story for hotel guests only and the plan of a new building ever year for 5 years, the future for car parking on campus looks very bleak.. I understand a new multi-story is planned by the station.. great.. but what about short term??? Can i suggest a park and ride at no extra cost??

This is a pretty appalling situation and significantly impacts on the quality of life of a large number of University Employees. The University has a clear obligation to effectively rectify the chronic lack of parking with utmost haste.

I have leave at 6am to be able to arrive on campus to still see spaces. I'm concerned for staff who live even further out than me who have to leave even earlier.

Since the building developments in Campus started last year the car parking spaces have been reducing exponentially. This summer during August I had to park on Selly Oak roads a couple of times because at 8:15 am I couldn't find anywhere to park, including the payasyougo car parks that keep being the answer from the University when we complained before. As an academic who needs to lecture at 9:00 am I am coming these days at 7:00-7:30am in order to do my job. This is ridiculous and disgraceful. I know that one day I might not be able to park, thus to arrive to my Lecture on time, thus to cancel it and have to reschedule it. Is this the best way to go ahead? I don't think so. Some parts of the University have their own car park spaces for their members of staff (e.g.: Schools of Law, Bussiness and Medicine) where only their members of staff can park (Professor only in Medical School) but the rest we are treated as second citizens in a world of Academia. This is outrageous and given a clear message of no caring. The University is not its buildings but the community of people working for it. It is about time to recognise it and treat us properly. With all my best wishes,

I waste valuable worktime looking for a parking space when I arrive on campus at 9am, having taken my children to school. I drove this morning around the North East Car Park looking for a space and then had to leave. I have parked in the sports centre car park but will need to go back before 2.5 hours to move my car somewhere else. I also find it infuriating that the Ringo signs suggest that we will be charged £1.20 when actually we are charged £1.40. Finally, I get charged twice if I swipe onto the main campus to look for a parking space and then have to resort to the North East car park (if there is space) and pay again. The entire system is broken and requires urgent change.

The situation is utterly farcial. There is a policy that says a new space will be introduced for one lost. But this is in the face of a significantly growing number of staff on campus. New buildings are a priority, but somehow the new car park (for which there is no site identified in the public information on the campus plan) will be ready in 2019! Each day I spend 50 mins finding a space, parking, and walking 10 minutes each way across campus, as the nearest parking is so far away. Now it's the case that even the multi-storey is often full. Small things also waste people's time. If you use the pay and display multi-storey, there is only one machine per floor (because they couldn't be bothered to pay for two). This creates queues and wastes another few minutes walking up and down the length of the car park. So, in total nearly an hour of my productive time each day is taken up with this crap. Also, I've been around long enough to remember that when car parking charges were introduced, that the University was going to spend all the money to improve environmentally better ways to travel. They promised us better bus services from Moseley, better support for bikes, everything. And of course, none of what was promised was delivered. Finally, there are other farces, such as the fact that the pay and display car park on the corner of Pritchatt's Rd and Vincent Drive has more than 100 spaces which are research park only. So the vast majority of these are empty every day.

I agree with all the concerns raised here. When raising the issue of parking on campus in the past I have been offered the "helpful" solution of investing in a bike and cycling into work. In an ideal world, yes, wouldn’t that be perfect. I would dearly love to cycle into work but it is simply not feasible due to the location and distance of home to the University. Perhaps if I sent my daughter to boarding school and left the house at 4.30am each morning. Yes, that might just solve the problem! What about those who live rurally and do not have access to public transport links? Or those who do the school run twice a day each day? I am in both of those categories and have no choice other than to drive. Car sharing is not an option either because there are no UoB colleagues who live within a 20 mile radius of me. There is nothing more frustrating and soul destroying to literally abandon my daughter at the school gates or bus stop (even if she would prefer I stay with her) just so I can gain a 5 or 10-minute advantage over the traffic into work and on campus. Only to find of course, that it makes no difference whatsoever and I still have a fruitless drive around campus trying to locate a precious parking space. Sometimes it takes as long to find a parking space as it does to do the daily commute to work! And as for the “Parking Police” – I have had two tickets in the last 8 months. Both for squeezing my car into a tiny space and encroaching on the dreaded hallowed yellow hatched areas, mostly due to contractors vans taking up two spaces! No access points were compromised and it was simply a case of desperation after a frantic search for a space with a meeting looming. I can say that I have not and will NOT be paying the penalty for either of these tickets given the situation with the spaces on campus. To charge staff for the dubious pleasure of entering campus to take part in parking wars each day is absolutely disgraceful!

Ridiculous shortage of parking considering we have to pay

The chronic shortage of parking spaces is affecting productivity and morale and needs addressing.

I am struggling to find a parking place few days a week. Just to get to work early to find place. I have organised baby sitter for one hour in the moring so I can find a place.

Please check out also the Sport Center policy, it is ridiculous! Staff and students are charged in the Sport Center Parking, despite the membership. They are invited to park IN CAMPUS. So, if I am staff or student, and if I just want to use the sport center, I will occupy the spot of someone who is going to work. And I don't think it is fair...

I arrive around 9.30am on a Wed and Thurs and have had to start parking inSelly Oak to get a car parking space. The multi-storey is horrendouse since the loss of all the Muirhead car park spaces. This is annoying especially when you pay a monthly amount to park here.

The situation was already parlous on south Campus with hundreds of spaces removed over the last couple of years, but the recent removal of whole car parks, together with the constant stream of contractors, skips and portacabins taking up spaces, and expansion of controlled (eg Uni vehicle only) parking has made things completely untenable across the whole campus.