New parking restrictions

The Council have now implemented new parking restrictions around the surgery. The four parking spaces outside the surgery, which used to be available for free parking up to one hour, now require payment via an App only. We complained to the Council about this repeatedly including in September 2020 and again in October 2021, as we are concerned about the impact of these parking restrictions on:

• the ability of patients with mobility issues to access healthcare
• the less digitally able not being able to use the required app to book parking bays outside the surgery; the council have suggested that ‘ownership of mobile phones is now high, including among the elderly’, but this is not our experience
• our already over-stretched admin staff, as patients have already come into the surgery unable to park and asking to rebook appointments, disrupting our ability to manage demand in the surgery

We cannot see any reasonable justification for removing a small number of one-hour bays designed to facilitate access to healthcare for the most vulnerable, when local residents’ parking is adequately provided for elsewhere.

Please note also that the CPZ around the surgery is now in place from 10am-noon, rather than 8.30am-10.30am, and covers a wider number of roads.

If you wish to contact the council about this, you can e-mail them on parking@richmond.gov.uk.