Parking was a controversial issue during 2017 at West Sussex County Council.
Staff and UNISON were unhappy with the way a proposed parking policy was developed and shared at WSCC.
It could have meant a flat charge of £300 being applied to thousands of staff across hundreds of workplaces, though the council’s priority users would have had free parking.
UNISON has been working hard to put the staff view to the chief executive and we believe that the final outcome is the best we can achieve. Parking is not a term and condition of employment. Many people will be satisfied with the solution on offer, others won’t. These are the key elements, which in several respects show a radical change from what was consulted on:
- Free parking for priority users, which UNISON agrees with;
- That the arrangements will be confined to Horsham and Chichester and not universally rolled out across council sites;
- External staff such as Capita and others will have access to parking;
- The arrangements will be properly resourced (the previous scheme only failed because it
was not resourced); - That we will see a response to all the points members’ raised in UNISON’s consultation response;
- Staff with permanent disabilities will get access to free parking;
- There will not be a £300 a year flat charge, but a £1 a day pay and display scheme for bays not set aside for priority users;
- The council will review the impact on displaced staff who will lose access to free parking and see if other options are possible.
The scheme will be rolled out from April. We hope it solves the problems but will keep matters under review. We have met with council officers on a weekly basis to discuss parking and will continue to meet until rollout.
Thank you to members who took part in our survey.
You can read the UNISON response on the parking consultation here.