I received a call from a resident today. The resident had to drive her wheelchair bound husband to Queens hospital.
A letter requesting the attendance had suggested parking at the back of the hospital in the GREEN ZONE.
The resident had driven in to the hospital from Rom Valley Way (opposite the Mother Care World store). When she reached the roundabout to go to the front of the hospital, she saw the route to the back of the hospital, and also noticed the sign saying No Exit, Access to Oncology and A&E Drop Off.
Unfortunately, the resident ignored the signs and received a fine for driving where she should not have.
The car park for the department she wanted to park near, can only be accessed from the Oldchurch Road – opposite where the previous hospital was.
Please be aware that driving down the bus lane at the hospital will almost definitely get a ticket.
I will be contacting the hospital and will ask them to include driving directions to their appointment letters when it comes to requesting people park at the back of the Hospital
UPDATE – 7/6/21
On further examination of the area in question – the BUS GATE is the area monitored by a Camera (see picture).
To get in to the car park at the rear of the Hospital, you need to enter the car park through Old Church Road.
If you pass through the Bus Gate and you are not driving one of those big red things – you will likely get a ticket for your effort
As a radiotherapy patient i have recently been attending Oncology on a daily basis. I was made aware of the bus gate from the start, but talking to a number of other patients in the waiting room I find quite a few have been caught by the camera and fined. To me the signage is unclear- I was looking for signs and the ones on your left as you exit the oncology car park are not visible (car roof in the way). There is one opposite but I failed to notice it until I had attended maybe half a dozen times. clearly this is a money-maker but does it serve any purpose anyway?
Yes I was caught here too. What on earth is a bus gate, I thought, when I DID see the sign but only when I was round the corner moving INTO it with nowhere to go short of an emergency stop — with the risk of another vehicle coming round the corner and hitting me. Having googled the term “bus gate” it seems only to exist in nerdish Town Planner guidance notes – has it hit the Highway Code yet?
I think it a most unfair signage and placement. I am new to the area and the road pattern there is confusing anyway. Also my husband had not long died and I did not feel like an argument with bureaucracy . But someone needd to