The introduction of new parking restrictions at a doctors’ surgery in Great Denham has caused costly confusion for some residents and attempts to resolve the situation are hitting a brick wall.
Debbie Williams, the landowner of the Village Medical Centre (VMC) has recently introduced restrictions to prevent visitors to the nearby pharmacy, vets and dental practice from using parking spaces reserved for patients in the GP surgery car park.
Patients at the VMC can park for free as long as they provide their car details when they arrive at the surgery. However, there have been criticisms from users of the nearby facilities that they have been unwittingly caught out when stopping briefly to pick up a prescription.
A resident from Biddenham contacted the Bedford Independent after she was fined £60 for a six-minute stay to collect items from Meiklejohn Pharmacy.
“On Thursday 6 April I popped into the pharmacy to pick my prescriptions up before heading off on holiday,” said Helen Essien.
“On Saturday I received a letter telling me I had been fined £100 for parking illegally, which would be reduced to £60 if I paid within two weeks. If not paid within a month, the fine would rise to £160.
“I was there for six minutes (stated in the letter) so there doesn’t seem to be any grace period.
“I didn’t notice any signage – apparently more signage was put up on 13 April [and] I know of two other people in my small cul-de-sac who have also received charges – and plenty more in the village.
“I think there are going to be a lot of annoyed people in Biddenham and Great Denham and the surrounding areas.”
Helen said she will be appealing the charge, saying more effort should have been made by the landowner and surgery to alert residents that the charges were being implemented.
“I’ve also noticed that people have started parking on the road next to the school,” said Helen. “Which is also making things more dangerous.”
Finding a solution
The owner of Meiklejohn Pharmacy told the Bedford Independent that they were not consulted before the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras were installed, so they were surprised when the new restrictions came into force.
“We’ve been here since the VMC’s inception in 2005 and were originally inside the surgery,” said Indira Panchal.
“In 2014 we were asked to move out to enable them to accommodate more GPs. We moved into a Portakabin next door and then bought the land to build our premises.”
Up to that point, the surgery and users of the pharmacy had shared the car park and Meiklejohn Pharmacy built its new premises based on this being the case.
“If I’d have known this was going to happen when we were building, I would have changed the design and created more parking spaces,” said Indira.
She said some elderly customers have been fined up to three times as they do not understand the new system.
“It’s definitely having a detrimental effect on people visiting the pharmacy,” she said. “And the landowner won’t discuss it with us anymore.”
Indira’s solution would be for Ms Williams to enable her customers to register their vehicle details on the system within the pharmacy.
Great Denham councillor, Jim Weir (Conservative) has been attempting to mediate between each of the parties involved, including the NHS Primary Care Trust, Debbie Williams (the landowner), Meiklejohn Pharmacy and the local residents that he represents.
He has used social media to update residents and issued this statement on his Facebook page:
After several days of trying to contact the NHS, Cllr Weir spoke to a representative yesterday (Wednesday) to be told that “they have no contractual levers that can change the current system.”
“This really is now down to the two parties – the pharmacy and the landowner – to resolve,” said Jim.
“I will continue to keep talking to both parties to see where we can – hopefully – find consensus.
“Richard Fuller MP has also been briefed and he will look at any options he may be able to employ.”
With local elections next week, the issue has also been raised with the Liberal Democrat Mayor, Dave Hodgson, Labour’s Mohammad Yasin MP and other local candidates.
The landowner declined to give a comment.
