Visitor car parking at QEQM Hospital in Margate is getting an overhaul with the introduction of an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system.
A temporary pay and display machine is currently in place at the car park area by the Ramsgate Road entrance but this is being changed over.
The ANPR- controlled entry and exit will require payment when motorists leave the site.
An East Kent Hospitals spokesperson said: “The visitor car parks are being changed from a ticket-based system to ANPR-controlled entry and exit. Under this system, you still pay when you leave.
“All of our disabled parking bays are located outside the ANPR barrier controlled car parks, so there is no change to how these work.
“A temporary Pay & Display machine is in place in one of the car parks (outside the Ramsgate Road main entrance) while it is moved to the new ANPR system. This will be in place until later this week.
“We have extra staff on site helping out in the car parks during the changeover.”
I wonder if this will be the same company who operate most of the car parks up westwood, who issue PCNs for simply using their car par to turn around in under a minute. Lets hope they’re sensible and give 10/20 minutes for drop off/pick ups…
There is no mention about Blue Badge disabled parking and how this will work!
Probably as reliably as the scanners do at the machines at Ashford Outlet.
It says the blue badge and disabled parking bays are outside the ANPR area.
They wrote the disabled parking will be outside of the ANPR parking area and as a blue badge holder I don’t quite understand why we now get free parking, even when we did have to pay it was subsidised.
must have money to burn anything to make life even more stressful alongside hospital stresses. So if you are picking up someone or dropping them off and it takes longer than expected will you be charged, will the buses get charged or are these cameras just in the entrance to parking areas
The buses will not get charged. They don’t use the car park.
It’s worth noting that the Loop bus, which runs every 8 minutes most of the time, stops right outside the A&E entrance.
Who did the trust consult with before going ahead with this scheme?
Shame the hospital didn’t object when KCC took away the free on street parking right outside the hospital on the main road.
all this is about is making piles of money for some out of town company , there are never enough blue badge bays , because theres no money to be made from them , the ones on the st peters road side are taken up by hospital staff , many of the others are people using thier mothers / grandmothers badges , you see so many able bodied people using these bays , it needs looking into
I hope the ANPR system will still let us have the current 15 (or is it 20?) minutes free of charge. That gives me enough time to go in and collect my mum after her treatment without having to pay!
With the ANPR system, what will happen if you enter a car park, drive around and out again as you are unable to find a space. I trust there will be no charge for that.
Works perfectly well in Canterbury hospital, in fact I was in and out in an hour and it was free, my concern at Margate is the low number of disabled bays, it’s quite a walk from the main entrance to the Spencer wing