Labour County Councillors have this week slammed the Conservative administration at County Hall for taking away parking permits from health and care professionals such as midwives and heath visitors.
Until now, members of caring professions who visit people at home in Morecambe and Lancaster have been able to get permits that let them park in residents parking zones. However, the County Council want to harmonise parking permits across the county and so have removed carers permits from the proposed new parking rules.
Erica Lewis, County Councillor for Lancaster South East said, “Lancashire County Council in its attempt to find a one-size fits all solution to parking across Lancashire has removed all mention of carer permits from its parking regulations consultation.”
“Local care providers have previously raised concerns that that the removal of carers permits will have a negative impact on the care they can provide. Short visit times and already bursting schedules mean that a need to either park outside the residents parking zone, or to go into the home to get a permit and come back out again, will mean less time for care.”
County Councillor and Parliamentary Candidate Lizzi Collinge said “I’m at a loss as to why the County Council didn’t take this opportunity to spread carers permits across Lancashire, as myself and Cllr Lewis have lobbied for. I know from speaking with health visitors and midwives that this omission from the new parking scheme will affect patient care and staff’s ability to do their job.
“Midwives have to carry heavy baby scales and have a lot of families to see in one day; how will they manage their caseload with extra time faffing with parking? One health visitor I spoke to explained that not all families welcome having a health visitor call and that having to ask for a parking permit would make an already difficult visit even harder.”
Changes have also been made to residents’ parking schemes and on-street parking charges across the district. Proposals can be viewed here www.lancashire.gov.uk/roads-parking-and-travel/roads/roadworks-and-traffic-regulation-orders/permanent and people affected can respond to it by emailing tro-consultation@lancashire.gov.uk by 14th June.