Applications for parking permits were assessed against the four agreed criteria – length of journey to work, caring responsibilities, business use and disability.

Essentially, if an individual held a blue badge, their application was automatically approved. Points up to a maximum of 30 were awarded for each of the other three criteria: with the exception of a few extreme cases, applicants needed to score points under more than one criterion in order to be awarded a permit.‌‌‌‌

We sought proof of home address and measured length of journey to work by public transport using software previously deployed in other organisations. Statements about business use could be checked through discussion with line managers where necessary. We did not seek to verify statements relating to caring responsibilities as we could not identify any reasonable means of doing this. All applicants were required to confirm that the information they had submitted was true.

At the appeal stage, a panel comprising one professional services staff member, a senior academic and a member of staff from Human Resources considered each of the appeals individually. We reviewed the assessments already undertaken by the Car Parking Team and considered any additional information members of staff had submitted. In most instances, those who were unsuccessful scored points for length of journey, business use and caring responsibilities (typically small children, elderly parents and disabled relatives), but did not score as many points as other applicants. The decision was not always a straightforward quantitative one – in a few very unusual instances, we took complicated personal circumstances into account and reached a decision following discussion among panel members.

The Equality & Diversity Unit is analysing the data from the application round and will publish the results as part 2 of the Equality Impact Assessment for the scheme’s introduction.

We sought to apply the criteria as fairly as possible. Inevitably, with fewer than 500 car parking spaces on the Gilmorehill campus and some 7,000 staff, we could not satisfy all the demand for permits. We could of course issue more permits, but this would lead to congestion and frustration when members of staff are unable to find a parking space on campus. However, we propose to keep the situation under regular review and will issue more permits if we think this is justified. At Garscube, all applications in the 2018 round were successful.

David Duncan
Chair, Car Parking Working Group

First published: 31 January 2019

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