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Cumbrian nurses out on call given parking tickets by wardens
By Thom Kennedy

Last updated 12:36, Tuesday, 28 April 2009

On-call medics treating seriously ill patients in Penrith have been issued with parking tickets by traffic wardens.

The matter emerged at a meeting of Eden District Council, when councillor Mike Davidson questioned Gordon Nicolson, the council’s executive member for the environment, on the issue.

He said: “It was brought to my attention that district nurses and doctors on call have been issued with penalty notices while working with extremely ill patients in Penrith. What’s to be done about this?”

Mr Davidson told the News & Star that he first became aware of the problem when two district nurses who were treating his seriously ill mother had been given tickets when their cars were parked in Sandgate Car Park. Both had been given the tickets despite having ‘nurse on call’ stickers – issued by Cumbria County Council, which does not organise wardens – clearly displayed in their cars.

And the councillor believes that the council’s rules need to be changed quickly to make the situation easier for nurses.

“They are giving tickets to cars that don’t have permits for that car park, and whether giving tickets to cars that have ‘nurse on call’ stickers in the window is ethically right is not for me to say,” said Mr Davidson.

“There is pressure on these nurses to get round, as they have patients all over the district, and we need to make a decision to allow them to park as easily as possible. This is a problem they don’t need. We are talking about changing the governance of the council to make decisions quicker, yet this is something that has taken three months.”

Penrith’s traffic wardens were the subject of national press reports last year, when the owners of the Angel Lane Chippie banned them from their takeaway.

In response to the enquiry at Thursday’s meeting, Mr Nicolson said: “The matter is in hand. I have had discussions with the officers involved, and we had further discussions in my portfolio meeting, and hopefully we will have a solution very quickly.”