Parking in the centre MK near where I live is an absolute nightmare. Unless you work on a Sunday, starting at 10 and finishing at 6, which is perfect, as there is no one around.
Either way, if I’m working a 10 hour shift (which I usually am) or going shopping for a few hours, then I HAVE to get the free parking. Located about a 5 – 10 minute walk from the centre itself is the nearest free parking, but it can be up to 15 minutes.
It’s that, or I pay £10 for a space right next to the centre, or a pound an hour on the red zone just outside the centre. Alternatively, there’s the 25p an hour zone, in between the two places. The purple zone. But when I’m earning about £50 a day, I do not want to be forking out a tenner for the parking. It’s ridiculous. Paying anything for parking seems such a waste, even when it isn’t much.
I don’t work a lot, but when I do, I pay for the petrol to get there (about £4 and something last time I checked, it’s probably more with the petrol increases) and the things I buy at work, food I get at work, anything I buy in the centre, or if I go to the cinema… it all adds up. I only usually work one day a week, and hopefully more when I get back from holiday, so I just don’t have that kind of money to spend on parking.
Parking at hospitals is the same. Why on earth would you charge someone when they are visiting someone who is seriously ill, hurt or dying? It’s unjustified, its immoral, it’s wrong. We shouldn’t do it. At the end of the day, a few hours at the shopping centre, it’s okay to charge for. But really, hospitals should not charge to park, especially when you don’t know how long you’re going to be there. In addition to that, if you’re at an NHS hospital, and not private, then clearly they don’t have all the money in the world to be using on parking. It’s not important.
What does the money go on anyway? Where does it get spent? If it’s in the hospital; don’t they get enough from the government, which goes into paying management positions where it should be spent on facilities anyway? Or does it go to the council, where it should be paying for recycling and cubbish collection, but instead goes on something else useless. Okay, I don’t know this for sure, and yes, of course I’m making this up.
But why should I pay for parking? I’m going to the shopping centre to buy things, and eat things, and watch your films. What more do you want from me? If I’m going to visit someone who’s ill, why should I pay more just to pick them up, or take them to an appointment, or possibly say my final goodbye to you? Someone argue with me, because I can’t see the benefit of parking without knowing where it goes.
I’m on holiday in Canada at the moment, and the Westin hotels are a prime example of expensive parking, which just goes to the big owners of the business. $15 for vale parking? There is a free car park literally 100 metres across the road for the Blue Mountain Resort. Why on earth would I pay to use your car park? I’m glad we didn’t.
Capitalist society car parking. Where does the money go?
I guess I’ll have to stick to my Sunday shift. Lots of choice of parking spaces at 9am!
I love this picture.... <3
