Coe uses parking at Calvary as excuse to fingerpoint

JC said :

Martlark said :

Calvary is on a major bus route with dozens of buses an hour. There is no need for the masses of ad-hoc gravel parking in Calvary.

What a load of bullshit. Whilst yes there are many buses everyday ever stop to think the reason the carpark is so full is because people are in a rush (like I was last week when my mum was admitted to Emergency), or people are stopping in to see people in their lunch break, or appointments when they are working.

For me to get the bus from my work in the Parl triangle to the hospital it would take me roughly an hour each way. To drive at that time of day 15 minutes.

So keep the use your bus comments for those doing 9-5 jobs, and even then stop and think that buses due to the very nature of this city are not viable for everyone, myself included.

When my wife had a baby at Calvary I rode my bike there after work to visit. When my friend with MS had a relapse and stayed there for a week I took the bus at lunch to visit. Did not take much effort.

The reason there is no parking for visits is due to all the full time workers there driving and taking all the spots. An effective pay parking scheme would have resulted in plenty of spots to park. The craven populism of the Government has prevented visitors from parking.

As someone who was making weekly trips to Calvary I have to say parking is simply diabolical. I stopped looking for legal parking spots very early on and would just head straight to the dirt track to park. Then I’d have to unload a pram on the dirt track and push it up hills and onto the road while cars whizzed past me looking for spaces because other cars had parked on the footpath, blocking all access to any users. It’s a serious problem. If you are in anyway physically incapacited it is not fun and I would guess a serious fall/injury risk.

The other issue I had was when I was 8 months pregnant and on crutches was not being able to find a seat at the taxi zone outside the emergency entrance. Those seats which were available were in the open which was no help when it was raining. I waited for nearly an hour once for a taxi and ended up having to sit on the concrete, under the shelter, because I just couldn’t stand anymore. I wrote a letter to Calvary saying how hopeless this situation was and how given it’s a hospital facility which sick people use maybe they could look into some sheltered seating at a taxi zone. they wrote back saying ‘yes, we’re looking into it’.

Hopeless.

Given the reports are true and not horrendously exaggerated I can believe that my local member’s care and interest is genuine and is totally consistent with the notion that the community has every right and responsibility to call upon the government to do their job in serving the community. I can’t believe anybody would want to suggest anything less.

Considering there is at most a couple of days work for a grader operator and a couple of truckloads of road base every now and then I think the $1.3m consulting fees before it is ‘shovel ready’ as the government spokeswoman said, shows how this has all the earmarks of another dam project in the making – i.e no tangible benefit for mammoth waste of money.

Martlark said :

Calvary is on a major bus route with dozens of buses an hour. There is no need for the masses of ad-hoc gravel parking in Calvary.

What a load of bullshit. Whilst yes there are many buses everyday ever stop to think the reason the carpark is so full is because people are in a rush (like I was last week when my mum was admitted to Emergency), or people are stopping in to see people in their lunch break, or appointments when they are working.

For me to get the bus from my work in the Parl triangle to the hospital it would take me roughly an hour each way. To drive at that time of day 15 minutes.

So keep the use your bus comments for those doing 9-5 jobs, and even then stop and think that buses due to the very nature of this city are not viable for everyone, myself included.

I got stuck attempting to park at the top of the larger parking bay, where there’s a boom gate. The first time I came across it, the boom lifted and I was able to park. The second time it was dead, forcing me to do a 37point turn because it’s a no-through carpark.

The ACT Gov came to the BCC well over a year ago to present plans for resuming bushland and turning it into carpark. It was a contentious evening with some residents feeling that you cant just take public land, and especially bushland, and turn it into even more carpark. Other options discussed were a multi storey carpark built on calvarys existing site. I’m amazed that several years later, it still hasn’t been built. I’m also not sure why we the ratepayer are paying for a private entities staff carpark, and surrendering public space at no cost.

Calvary is on a major bus route with dozens of buses an hour. There is no need for the masses of ad-hoc gravel parking in Calvary.

I agree that parking at Calvary is s***, but clearly Mr Coe doesn’t know that Calvary Hospital is a private hospital that provides public services on contract. So any parking issues clearly belong to the hospital and not the Government.

Also unless I am mistaken Calvary have plans for a multi story car park.

This is up there with the No Smoking rule on hospital grounds………there’s nothing like having to walk through a group of smokers when entering the hospital (or shops for that matter).

Maybe the church should chuck in some funds for a carpark from all their tax free earnings?