University slammed for ‘exploiting local community’ with new parking charges
A MEMBER of an athletics club has slammed University of Warwick for “ridiculous” new car parking charges which will cost him more than £600 a year.
Scott Eburne, a committee member of Godiva Harriers, has been using the facilities at the university campus for more than 10 years, and has been able park on site for free after 6pm and on weekends.
However, the university has recently announced changes to parking charges which will mean Scott, and anyone else looking to use the facilities, will have to pay £2 to park after 6pm during the week, and £2.80 to park all day at weekends and on bank holidays.
Scott said: “I’ve been coming since 2008. I’m a member of the committee and I’m here five or six times a week, meaning I will be down £560 to £600 plus a year.
“We have a good relationship with university but I feel like these charges are targeting people like us, from the local community, who have used the facilities on campus for years and years.
“If they spoke to us before announcing it, and maybe offered us some annual parking passes it wouldn’t have seemed so bad.
“Volunteers who will be out of pocket and it will put people off coming down to the track it seems ridiculous.”
Even though he is concerned about his own club, 26-year-old Scott also feels the changes will have a negative impact on other clubs on campus, such as tennis and badminton groups, as well as the many football teams who use pitches at the university.
He said: “I know there is going to be a lot of kids who used to come down and run around who will now be missing out as their parents can’t afford it.
“I see one of three things happening - either parents won’t bring them at all, they will just drop the kids off without parking so they don’t have to pay, and there will be kids walking around the car park. Or they are out of pocket, but I think numbers will go down.”
A spokesman for University of Warwick said: “We have tried to keep evening and weekend parking on campus free for as many years as possible but sadly this is no longer sustainable as we still have costs to create and maintain those car parks and parking systems and pay the parking and security staff who help operate them.
“The new charges are in line with the evening charges that have applied for many years in car parks in Coventry and several Warwickshire towns, and the new campus Saturday parking charges are in fact lower than many of the Saturday long stay (three hours and above) car parks in those same locations.
“Income from car parking also subsidises sustainable transport on and to the campus including; cycling provision, bus subsidies and shuttle buses.”
But Scott sees the move as going against previous comments from the university claiming to be a part of the local community.
He added: “It seems like it is all financial. This seems concerning so many people will be out of pocket, just so they can line their own - it’s disappointing.
“They talk about being part of the community, but the seems like they are just exploiting the local community to line their own pockets.”