With students struggling to find affordable parking around and nearby the University locals are voicing their frustrations about student parking. The question is where are we at now with resolving RGU’s parking problem?
At the beginning of this month President of Communications and Democracy, Michael Ife, sent out an email to all students to update us all on the parking issue. Voicing his concerns, he stated: “This is a serious issue.?It's one that has an impact on your ability to attend lectures and classes.” Which is true for many students.
Alyx Stickle, third year Architecture Technology student and class representative stated that many people on her course find it “awful finding space on the roads and is very expensive” if you don’t have a parking permit for campus. Alyx also stated that “a lot of people don’t bother coming to class if it is only two hours in the middle of the day because it is too difficult finding spaces and some cannot afford to come in for half days because of the cost of permits.”
Many students at RGU evidently also have problems like those in Alyx’s class with Michael and the Union are receiving a lot of frustration through feedback on the parking problem, with Michael continuing to hold talks with the University including at the Board of Governor.
Currently, the solutions suggested are as follows:
* An introduction of?a Park & Ride service?to the RGU campus.
* An investment into better technology to manage the campus parking allocation system.
* To work with local bus companies to add and?improve services to the?Garthdee?area from all over the city and not just the centre.
* To?further develop the car share scheme.
These solutions and the talks, however, despite looking, positive will take a long time to implement, therefore the union wants to continue to hear your voice to come up with a solution quicker.
Within Michael’s update, he also stated that although he understands the problems we as students are facing we must also cooperate with the public as members of the Garthdee community with many members having contacted the Union as well as RADAR about the problems they are facing with careless parking. This includes access being cut off for emergency vehicles, double yellow line parking and parking in disabled spaces.
Michael explained that as students we need to be considerate of where we park and park only in designated areas as we do not want to cause them problems that could lead to a bad name for the university or legal sanctions against the drivers.
As mentioned RADAR also has received an email from a member of the public voicing his concerns and problems, however, like most he understands the issue that we have nowhere else to park but asks we do this considerably.
The member of the public stated that he realises that “parking restrictions in Garthdee and Auchinyell have widened the area where students are going to park their cars and after all they have to park somewhere but inconsiderate and illegal parking will not go down well with the residents of any area.
"There have been instances in Deeside Drive, Deeside Gardens and Deeside Park of cars parked on pavements, over entrances to driveways and blocking disabled ramps on pavements.”
He also went on to discuss that if it continues the police may have to be involved. However, stated that he accepted “that the examples in the photos or any instances of inconsiderate parking in the area?may?have nothing to do with RGU students. That remains to be seen.”
Overall, the community and the university are very aware of the parking issues students face at RGU and the negative effects this is causing on attendance and for the RGU name in the community due to inconsiderate parking. RADAR and Michael would love to hear your feedback on the parking problems and what solutions you have!
Contact Michael Ife, President of Communication and Democracy, @ prescd@rguunion.co.uk and RADAR by commenting or on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!