Parking charges
Highland and Islands Airports Ltd are due to introduce parking charges at Stornoway airport very shortly.
I don't have the details of the actual charges, but I am told that the Comhairle's objections/observations have been brushed aside by HIAL, on the grounds that the Comhairle have already introduced parking charges in Percival Square.
More details to follow soon.
I don't have the details of the actual charges, but I am told that the Comhairle's objections/observations have been brushed aside by HIAL, on the grounds that the Comhairle have already introduced parking charges in Percival Square.
More details to follow soon.
19 comments:
Bit Rich the cooncilobjecting when THEY were the one that introduced it in the Western Isles. Watch them this year now that the dough is getting tight, "DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO"
It's a shame but inevitable I guess. Everywhere else charges for parking in the UK so why should Stornoway be any different? Maybe I'll be able to find a parking place in the main car park this summer.
About time is what I say. Might free up space for those of us who would use the carpark for short time while seeing someone off or meeting an arrival. Not fair that some people bugger off leaving their car/van for days or even weeks on end in the park
9.59 missing the point, Council charge 20p per hour, what is the cost of an airport stay NCP Inverness. In 1999 I was paying £7.00 Friday afternoon to Monday morning. 10p per hour. How does that equate today?
With all due respect 9.42 I suggest YOU are missing the point using a relatively small carpark for long stay. I think a flat rate of 50p for stay up to max of 3 hours would be acceptable. Any longer to be disallowed completely
yes I agree 2 sections are require long stay for fliers and short stay for pickups etc with 2 rates.
I'm not really in favour of charges, but because many of the drivers here are so bad I would say yes just to discourage unnecessary car use.
Maybe they can learn to respect pedestrians, other drivers, and people living in town (with their 'modifications' which make them sound like jet engines).
These islands are really like America, with their attitude to driving. Even townies love their cars so much to take it somewhere that is a 5 minute walk away on a fine day.
A reasoned debate. But has anyone thought through what this will mean, given human nature and experience elsewhere?
First of all, people will park on the approach roads. Then HIAL will be forced to paint double yellow lines all along the sliproads and arrange for enforcement. Then people will park in the disabled parking bays and HIAL will be forced to employ someone to patrol them.
Then, people will park along the village roads in Melbost and will try to walk the sliproads in the dark to avoid the charges. HIAL will be forced to install street lights on the sliproads after the first few accidents involving pedestrians struggling with bags. The good folk of Melbost will grow weary of having strangers' cars parked outside their houses for weeks at a time.
And what, actually, will this all achieve? Will they actually grit the carpark in winter? I doubt it. They'll be too busy issuing parking tickets, mending the machine (which won't survive the weather) and generally ensuring that flying becomes a more miserable business than it is already (correct change for the machine, anyone?)
The parking charges will proberly be similar to the ones in Inverness.
http://www.hial.co.uk/car-parking.html
The car park charges at Rose St in Inverness
http://www.highland.gov.uk/yourenvironment/roadsandtransport/roads/carparks.htm
As for car parking you should see how different the rules are in Inverness for some. Worth reading..
http://www.highland-news.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/6969/Cops_shopped!.html
Boring, boring, boring! The parking charges in Perceval Square were a long overdue and sensible step that has been very successful. I can now find a place, pay 20p (scarcely a King's ransom) and do my business at shops & bank. Previously, there were no places because of all-day parking; now usually places for everyone willing to stump up. The same applies to the Airport: what's the problem?
Will the monies raised be used to pay for customer care lessons for the security staff in the airport?
Will the monies raised be used to pay for customer care lessons for the security staff in the airport?
Never. Security staff never care about the customers
7:36 - well said.
You never used to be able to park in the town centre, now you can easily find a spot, run into the shop or bank and then get back into you car and go on about your business. 20p well spent I'd say.
Folk are too lazy to park in the correct car park at the airport and if 20 or 50p sorts that out then bring it on. And it is more than the price of a return taxi fare for say a week then folk will leave their cars at home - even better.
I don't often come back to rebut other comments, but I want to on this one. I live here, but my work takes me off-island at least 5 times a month - and sometimes twice a week.
If car parking charges are introduced at the airport, it adds cost to my business and helps make it less profitable. And in a recession, 'profitable' is something of a joke.
I wouldn't mind paying if I used the airport a few times a year; but I don't - I use it weekly, and park my car for a couple of days. I don't have a partner who can drop me off at the airport - and I need a car to get home when I arrive back at unsocial hours when the buses don't run.
So - and I know I'm not alone - HIAL introducing an airport parking fee is like them putting a new tax on me, and everyone who works away and brings money back to the islands.
If parking charges were accompanied by the introduction of reliable shuttle buses direct to town, I'd shut up and buy my ticket. But they won't be. And if parking charges would result in better car parks, I might put a sock in it. But they won't - they'll become a self-serving bureaucracy more interested in emptying the ticket machine than actually improving anything.
And it's not like the air tickets are actually cheap or anything, is it?
Air transport to and from Stornoway is basically a bus service for senior council staff and councillors on their way to junkets, lunches, jollies and shopping trips. Presumably they stick their cars in the car park and then would claim for parking charges...from our money. Also I would agree that if you charge for the airport car park punters will risk parking in the surrounding residential areas and walking to the terminal. This has certainly happened on the mainland where hospital parking charges have been introduced and local residents have had to end up with permit schemes. And so it goes on.
This is just a pathetic money making initiative by HIAL who are strapped for cash at the moment. Yes charges for the town centre parking are required as this is multi use. But the airport is in the middle of nowhere and users of this car park are either airport workers or travellers. There is plenty of room there and I have never had problems finding a space no matter what time of year or day/night. Given that the number of flights are decreasing rather than increasing there shouldn't be any problems in the future either.
"Western Isles Council opposes the idea" that because so many of them use the car park on a daily basis to fly off to meetings for the day on the mainland, they dont want to have to fork out for parking (not like they dont get paid enough to afford it). You would think the council would use video conferencing more so it would save us & them money rather than flying away for stupid 1-2 hour meetings all the time.
8:44 said "Western Isles Council opposes the idea"
That about sums it up. The Western isles Council opposes any idea. The fact that they claim that the Stornoway Port Authority is the Stop Progress Authority would be the best case of the pot calling the kettle! The SPA is a lot more open that the LA.
Heb news has the rates up and it's hardly a crisis - £3 daily?
£3 a day is reasonable enough. I was at the airport twice last week to pick people up from flights but couldnt find a parking space apart from right infront of the building which meant I was not allowed to leave my car unattended incase the man shouted at me over he tannoy. It worked for percival square to free up spaces so should help at airport too.
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