Car parks closed during Open Day this Friday
Posted on behalf of: Student Recruitment Services
Last updated: Monday, 8 September 2014
Drivers are being encouraged to make alternative travel plans to campus this Friday (5 September) with around 800 car parking spaces being reserved for visitors to the University’s Open Day.
To provide parking for coaches and other vehicles for Open-Day visitors, car parks P1 (science car park), P6 (Mantell) and P7 (near IDS) will be closed to staff and students all day on Friday.
This equates to around half of the available spaces on campus.
To read about alternative transport options and an up-to-date list of upcoming car-park closures, visit the University’s transport web pages.
In addition to the usual Saturday Open Days, the University has decided to hold an Open Day on a weekday in order to make it easier for schools and colleges to arrange group trips.
The Open Day on Friday is the first of two to take place this term, with the other taking place on Saturday 4 October.
Should we expect to be reimbursed given that we pay for our University parking? Many of us will now have to take the train which costs considerably more than 1 days worth of our parking permits.
Highly unimpressed.
When joining the University I was astonished that my new employer charged £360 per year for me to park at my work place. Public transport is simply not an option for those of us who have to drop off/pick up children and run a number of errands before and after work. Let's just hope there are sufficient car parking spaces for those who need to drive in that day.
If only there was somewhere nearby where coaches could park, leaving campus parking unaffected. Somewhere that already accepts a large number of coaches for one-off events. A football stadium would be perfect. Shame there's not one close to campus...
We have already pre-paid for our parking. Will we be re-imbursed? Public transport is not a viable option for many people. We do not all live by a train station. A bus ticket for me will cost £4.80, not to mention the 3 hours travelling time that the bus takes as opposed to 20 mins by car for the return journey. Many people, especially those with children will be subject to much inconvenience, re-arranging childcare etc...
We’ve arranged this Open Day so that it falls on a Friday, outside of term time, in an attempt to minimise impact on colleagues and other regular users of the campus, as this is when the car parks are less busy.
We’ve also booked spaces for coaches (for school groups) and 300 spaces for visitors’ cars over at the stadium, and have a booking system programmed to limit the number of spaces on campus used by Open Day visitors to the three car parks mentioned in the article above.
I apologise in advance if tomorrow’s parking arrangements cause any inconvenience, but hope that colleagues understand that this is an essential activity for the University to ensure we can continue to recruit the best students to Sussex.
David Winstanley
Head of Undergraduate Recruitment
d.a.winstanley@sussex.ac.uk
Parking arrangements are more that an inconvenience to another essential activity of the University which are the resit exams taking place at this time of year. If the invigilators have problems parking we risk not being able to run our exams to a very tight schedule and therefore not delivering for our current students.
Excuse me, but I have already paid to park on campus?! For me to travel in to work via public transport would be at considerable extra cost!
Unfortunately, I live 11 miles away and there is no safe bike route... otherwise I would consider riding in to work if it was a possiblity.
In addition to this, I am a working mum and I am not able to travel to work early as I have to drop my children off at school before coming here.
I really wish the university would consider working parents needs more often. I have no option but to drive in to work tomorrow.... seriously unimpressed!
Hi folks,
Just in case this helps anyone but Sussex has its own Car Share Scheme (part of the LiftShare network).
Cheers
Nathan
Come on, people - we need to run open days to ensure we have students to teach and administer. Otherwise none of us will be paying for parking on campus as we won't have jobs here.
There should be alternative arrangements for open day, like making visiting parents and prospective students park in the centre of Brighton and paying the extortionate prices charged at the car parks. It's not as if we want to attract more students to the university so that those employed there have a reason to come to work.
Put simply, it's one day out of 365. Get over it.
The Amex stadium uses our carparks for their events, so why can't the University arrange to use their spaces for visitors coming to Open Days? Scheduling the event on a Friday does not 'minimise impact on colleagues' either....
If there is coach parking at the amex, the why are there 3 coaches parked up on arts road on double yellow lines, one on a zig zag line next to the zebra crossing meaning peoples views to cross the road are obstructed unless they walk half way into the road, by which time any coaches/cars coming the other way aren't going to see them. I understand you need to have open days & these involve closing some car parks for spaces, but tiny roads aren't designed to be used as coach parks and coach drop off & turning points. I thought the university roads were classes as public roads in which case all three coaches are parked illegally & unsafely.
I have spoken to a security guard who said they had been given permission to park there. Whoever gave the permission needs to come and take a look at the situation and send them over to the amex.
If you'd like to leave a comment, enter your ITS username, password, and your comment. The comment may need approval before it is displayed, so don't expect your comment to appear right away.
By submitting a comment you are agreeing to the Acceptable Use Policy.
How ridiculous. What exactly are staff supposed to do? So half of us are not supposed to turn up on Friday?
From Katie Damen on 2 September 2014
report this comment