Car trouble means students miss out
STUDENTS of Edge Hill University say they are struggling to attend lectures on time due to the lack of parking at the Ormskirk campus.
It has long been a problem with students being unable to get one of the limited spaces available.
Amanda Ralphs said that her daughter, Megan, who travels from Wigan each day, has been turned away from the full car park on many occasions.
She posted on Facebook: “Megan won a oneyear scholarship prize of £1,000 when she started due to her excellent entrance exam results and at this rate with the parking situation she’ll be lucky to even attend.”
It can often take Megan hours to get to university due to the heavy traffic in the mornings, only for her to be late for her classes or miss them completely.
Amanda has set up a Facebook page called Edge Hill Parking Situation, which many students have joined in order to express the difficulties they’ve had with parking.
More than 500 people have already joined the group.
Other students have said that there have been occasions when they have had to head back into Ormskirk to park and do the 15 or 20-minute walk back to the university campus.
Writing on the page, Alexander James said: “It is not the university’s fault that there are only a restricted amount of parking spaces.
“The local council won’t allow for more spaces to be built and it is nothing to do with a multi-storey car park being an eyesore.
“The local road network is simply not equipped to deal with an increased amount of traffic.
“We need to be looking at park and ride schemes, which are being discussed, sustainable travel and the new car share scheme which has been really successful.”
Ben Matthew said: “Once us PGCE students go off on our placements in a few weeks I reckon the parking situation will improve for the rest of you.”
Charlotte Tuley said: “It really isn’t hard to have one of those traffic management people monitoring the carpark before it gets full, rather than afterwards. Stop people without permits, generally first years living on campus, from parking there in the first place.”
Mollie Rose Crewe said: “Towards the end of my second year, in April, I got turned away from the car park so I then had to look for a space elsewhere. In the end I parked down Scarth Hill Lane, where a lot of students park if they get turned away.
“I parked my car where everyone else was parking theirs, I then came back to my car after I finished uni to find that it had been keyed all the way down the driver’s side.
“As a result of this I had to pay £300 to get it fixed and emailed the uni to then have them say that it’s not their responsibility!”
Becky Taylor said: “The parking attendants were actually very nice this morning and were giving people lifts from the field over to creative edge.
“Obviously not a solution but at least they may be sympathising with us a little.”
Chris Taylor said: “My daughter was told if she lived in she couldn’t take a car as not enough spaces for students that commute so she decided to live at home and commute everyday only to have no space when she arrives. She sees other students’ cars parked up that live in and they do not have permits.
“I have complained but they didn’t want to know.”
A spokesperson for Edge Hill University said: “The demand for car parking at our Ormskirk campus remains significant and the parking capacity can’t always accommodate all vehicles during peak periods.”
The university has stated that the start of the new term is the busiest period for parking on campus. Edge Hill has added temporary parking on the fields in order to accommodate the influx.