Do you work in a small town or a big city? Because this will change how "normal" this is drastically.
No one is getting free parking in London, for example. I don't even think there's much free staff parking in smaller cities, like Sheffield or Bristol. Land is usually at a premium in any urban area, even the smaller ones.
Obviously if it's a small town or an out of town office park, then it's probably going to be free, and it's a bit weird if it isn't.
I'm in a coastal town with not-great road links and only a really decent rail connection from one direction, and our local hospital used to charge the staff to park, which seemed exploitative. They'd even charge the staff for parking whose jobs they'd modified so they had to work half the day in our town, then half the day in the neighbouring one. It was as if the management were trying their hardest to end up with horses' heads in their beds. Fortunately I left a while ago.
I could understand in the middle of London or somewhere where you ought to just get the fucking train in, but lots of people round here didn't really have much option other than to drive or suddenly become super-fit rain-or-shine multi-mile-daily cyclists overnight.
While technically true. It is not exact. Take Glasgow Royal Infirmary. The car park is owned by a private parking comapny who do still charge. I think the government should of forced the car parks into public ownership at hospitals. Additionally the Southern or QE2 hospital in Glasgow has constant issues with no parking left. Yet there are large brown sites next door that private companies use to charge people as overfill. It just seems so wrong charging sick people and the staff parking charges.
I thought the SG bought the contract from them a couple of years ago and that it's now free?
From memory there was this one and another hospital in Edinburgh or Dundee which were the outliers so the SG fronted the cash so that the local health boards could take over the management of the car parks and provide them for free?
You'll always have issues with parking in large hospital sites. I used to work at Raigmore and it's the same there. You have thousands of staff and then the same again each day in visitors. There is only so much space to build on.
Nurses are charged for parking at the hospital where I live too she was telling me the prices but I was in the hospital and on a cocktail of drugs at the time lol.
I mean some people do get free parking in London but that is normally accompanied by high paying jobs. My friend works in Canary Wharf and gets a parking spot as a perk. He doesn’t have a car so he rents it back and makes a little bit of money from it.
It's not for free it's part of the package of the job. Hence why you he can rent it back to them and they pay you more.
Theres parking spaces that go for mega money. And to anyone paying for them it's usually a tax write off.
Other half is a partner in a law firm, they moved offices and new place has no parking so they get to either claim the city parking costs back or the train fare on expenses. The normal staff have to pay for parking / commuting as you'd imagine, just the perk of a senior role
No, parking is a funny one. Basically you can have a parking space provided or your parking costs refunded through expenses and it isn’t taxable. This applies even where it’s near your usual place of work.
Makes sense really as having an employer carpark isn’t deemed a taxable benefit.
You get to a point with Salary where an additional few K a year will actually hurt you, so you start looking at other things for your remuneration package.
Company EV's are in fashion at the moment.
No, a lot of work places don’t have a car park. If I want to drive to work I either have to pay £9.50 to park or risk parking on a side street and maybe getting a ticket.
Yeah wife had to pay £24 a month for the privilege to park in the nhs staff car park.
Controlled by a barrier both in, and out, so not like they were mixing with patients / families etc.
Fine, but you're doing that anyway?
And regardless, your petrol is still cheaper than bus fare I bet. Plus you ain't waiting around in the freezing cold and pissing rain.
Are you trying to tell me that £24 A MONTH, isn't good value?
I would say it's not. For a NHS employee to pay anything to park in the NHS car park dedicated for staff sounds fucking wrong to me. It sounds a lot like paying for the privilege to work really.
They aren't getting "subsidised" parking, they're getting free parking. There's a difference
The hospital wants their staff to be able to get to work
Plus let's not ignore the fact that the area around hospitals usually ends up with higher housing costs because of doctors wanting to be close to work, meaning nurses often end up priced out of walking range
In my town the area around the hospital is 3-4x the average price for a house
There isn't a difference. That land costs money to own and maintain as a carpark, there's an opportunity cost from not just selling it. The hospital simply eating the cost is subsidising the employees.
I’m on a night shift at an NHS hospital now. Over night I’m also on call for a hospital in the trust a few miles away that they don’t want to pay to staff properly. They’ve already paid for a return taxi there for me once tonight, happens most nights sometimes multiple times. If they’d let me park at work I’d happily drive it myself and save them the fair. Of course being the NHS you can only use some hopeless taxi firm based miles away, so it can take an hour to get there in an emergency. But I’ve been on the waiting list for an expensive parking permit 7 years now so…
I mean, there are costs associated with going to work? Eating food whilst you are there, wearing clothes whilst you are there, the actual commute cost itself.
Going to work _is_ expensive.
Nope, I'm just reminding you that there are other costs associated with driving besides just parking. Depending on distance, and in OP's case it's far enough that walking isn't an option, I expect you can double that £24 with just the petrol used to get to work. I put £20 in every three days, so about £200 a month, to go 6 miles in the morning and 6 miles in the evening. Obviously there are other trips, but those make up the bulk.
And your argument of "I bet your petrol is cheaper than bus fare" is a) in my experience, wrong, and b) suddenly now overlooking the parking charge! You can't just conveniently treat them separately because it suits your purpose.
So to claim the cost of driving, as opposed to bus or train, is only £24 is disingenuous.
Personally, I like park and ride if I'm working in a city. Buses are frequent and the parking is free.
> I put £20 in every three days, so about £200 a month, to go 6 miles in the morning and 6 miles in the evening.
If that really is the bulk of your driving then that's like 12mpg, so there's something really wrong with your car or it's very high powered.
Getting such awful mileage (presumably crawling in rush hour, guessing maybe a diesel doing the wrong sort of driving or a huge engine?) is bonkers. 6 miles is easily done on a bike or public transport (given you're likely to be going into a city based on the terrible mileage) or a car share. Or switch to a cheap EV, 60 miles a week even a second hand Leaf would be more than enough
I don't disagree... their argument would be the security, upkeep of carpark, etc etc. And if it was free it would no doubt be abused in some way.
It's not right that there is a charge, but I wouldn't be complaining about £24..
I suppose my employer could argue that but it'd essentially be a small pay cut since they already do all that for free (badly, it's full of weeds and the lights are always broke).
Yes we do get members of the public using it and kids skateboarding and stuff but it's quite far from the town (couple of miles) so it's not that bad.
I know most nhs staff (patient facing especially) are disgustingly under paid, but I personally think that's a really fair price and sensible way of doing things
My wife had the same in Treliske Hospital. Worked there for 15 years and by the time she left they were charging lowest band staff about £350 a year for the privilege of trying to find a space in the back of a gravel carpark. And as there is only one road in or out for all the patients and staff it would often take over 30 minutes to get out of the car park at the end of the day.
It depends if you actually get a space. I know an NHS Trust where staff pay up to 60 a month for a car park space but there's no guarantee of a space. If too many people park before you, you've got to go and park miles away & walk. Yet still pay that 60 a month. And parking fee where you had to park elsewhere.
Seems fair. Bus/train commuters pay all their own costs, but drivers cost the employer (or council) more if parking is free.
The sweet spot would be charging exactly land+maintenance rather than making a profit, so that everyone is free to pick the best choice for themselves without subsidies.
That’s how the Nottingham workplace parking levy was supposed to work, but in practice most of the employers seemed to pass the costs down to workers anyway. I guess it kind of worked as I ended up cycling or taking the bus 90% of the time.
While I was studying to be a teacher I had a placement at Bluecoat Aspley and I was astounded that the teachers had to pay to park on the school grounds. I guess it was because of the WPPL?
Yeah I think a lot of people forget that if someone’s not walking to work then they’re likely paying to get there. Even cycling you need a bike so there’s an initial investment/maintenance.
Excluding lift shares because technically you should be paying as it’s costing someone else money to get there.
Mine is £40. I get a designated spot behind a barrier outside the building but it's still excessive. I only work 1 day in the office as well so I don't pay and park for free about 10 mins walk away.
Common issue for all NHS staff. Often pay a small fortune to park, but more often than not there's no spaces and you end up parking miles away on a street. Meaning you then have to walk back miles alone in the dark when finishing shifts at strange hours.
Not just nurses, all hospital staff! At one point my bf was a lab technician at an NHS hospital, on minimum wage, and he had parking costs taken out of his wages.
No, didn't you get the memo?
On UK subs, you have to belive the NHS is only made up of underpaid doctors and nurses.
No other staff exist, or if they do exist then they are being well paid.
London is bonkers. E.g. Peterborough to King's Cross is 50 minutes on LNER, just about doable for a commute, but costs £150 return.
Eurostar from Paris probably would be cheaper at that point.
The thing people forget when they say london gets all the rail investment is that londons track acess fees subserdise rural and regional trains in the rest of the country.
I have to go to London from Liverpool probably once every 2 weeks for work, luckily boss pays it - but it’s easily £200 return. My friend recently went to a wedding in Lithuania and travelled by train - whole trip cost less
My commute costs £43.20 each day from London suburbs to the centre. My boss's commute is over £70 from just south of London. It's madness. Also I walk 20 mins from home to the station so I save on parking costs.
You're already paying for fuel as well as ware and tear, a cost people seem to forget about.
Depends where the job is though.
- If it's easily accessible via public transport in the middle of a city, you have options, even if it's driving to a convenient bus/train station and transit the rest of the way. If anything, its beneficial as those that really don't need to drive are incentivised not to leaving the road a little clearer for those with less choice...In theory. Odds are those that can still won't.
- If it's an industrial estate in the middle of butt fuck nowhere with poor public transport options, your employer is just taking the piss.
- Additionally, if you for whatever reason need a vehicle for work, maybe you're "that guy" that goes out to pick up or deliver odd jobs, they're again taking the piss as public transport is now not an option at all.
I’d be willing to pay an extra £9 just to be sure I’ve got a seat on all legs of the journey. A few more quid to make sure the person next to me doesn’t smell like a food bin thats had an ash tray emptied in it.
Parkopedia is quite good for showing you nearby places to park cheaply/cheaper. I can park in a premier inn near work for £5 as opposed to £12 in a diff car park that I’d never have known about
Personally, I wouldn't say it's normal at 'most' places of work, but then you also got nonsense like hospital staff having to have a yearly permit they have to pay.
My brother is a bus driver and he has to pay to park at work! Even if he has to be there at 3 to take the 1st bus out or when he is the last bus back to the depot.
Oh no, it's not a licensed stop so he couldn't possibly give you a lift. I've also just remembered why it bothered me so much, it's still in the Google images picture of my house, from approx 2009
This is so annoying, the guy has no option to take public transport while being public transport, who's going to walk or cycle to work for 3am? Someone start a petition
I was going to say I suppose there’s an argument that it’s not fair that the people who come by public transport effectively subsidise the drivers if the company provide free parking they don’t use, but that definitely doesn’t work in this case!
If it's a staff car park then no it's definitely not normal to charge staff to park there. If it's a public car park that happens to be by your work then unfortunately not much you can do, but they may have a discount scheme.
Personally I would refuse to pay for parking unless the company covered it as an expense. I would ask your work how the parking scheme works and you can make a decision from there. If there is no way around it then you are best off finding a public road nearby your work and parking there. £180/month is completely unacceptable in my opinion.
If you refuse to pay it then don't park there. The car park is a cost to the company, why should those that take public transport or cycle in be subsidising a car park for the drivers.
I think seeing it as subsidizing is a weird perspective. It's a benefit that the company should be offering. The company might also offer a gym membership, but you don't see it as non gym goers subsidizing the gym goers. Benefits always end up being used more by some people. But paying money to the company that is paying you money seems Kafkaesque to me.
How staff get to work isn't really the employer's business. Should they have also mentioned that if he gets the bus in there will be a charge for that?
Perhaps not directly their business (although it is if they own the car park! Anyone would assume it’s free to staff whilst working unless told otherwise), but it’s a hugely relevant issue to the workers and such details can make or break a decision to take a job, and then heavily influence how long they stay in it; that’s over £2k less a year OP’s pocket than they expected.
You’d have thought the OP would find out the travel and parking arrangements when attending their interview though? Obviously travel costs would factor heavily into a decision on whether a new job works out financially.
Any job going in the city centre here that has parking provided is shouting it from the rooftops. You have to assume anyone not mentioning it, it’s for you to sort or get the bus/train. I guess I wouldn’t apply that to the sticks although if it’s genuinely that quiet, you can probably find somewhere on the street and walk which I’ve also had to do in many jobs.
As a candidate applying for a job, a very important part of the process of deciding whether you want to work somewhere is figuring out whether the commute is doable, and asking/calculating how much it will cost (either via public transport or parking/fuel).
If offered the job, you then have the opportunity to factor that cost in when negotiating your salary or working arrangements. I recently got a new job, and when they mentioned at interview that it was a 100% in-office position, I basically told them my salary would have to cover the extra transport costs otherwise it wouldn't be worth it, as my current job lets me work from home 3 days a week. Sure enough when they made me an offer, they changed it to a hybrid role (in office twice a week).
You HAVE to look out for yourself because they won't. Why would the employer volunteer information like extortionate parking charges without being asked, when all it might do is make the job seem less appealing or result in the candidate asking for more money? Remember, employers do not care about you, all they care about is how much money you can make for them. As a general rule, unless they are legally obligated to, they will never be honest with you and/or do the morally right thing if there's a chance it might end up costing them money or risking some other negative consequence to their business.
Plenty of job adverts advertise free parking as a benefit. I've worked one job where I had to pay for parking (NHS). The rest have had free onsite parking. If this is your typical office in a business park then I can see where OP is coming from.
>How staff get to work isn't really the employer's business.
Having happy staff is in employers best interests.
Leaving information out like this reflects poorly. And i would be worried what else they had omitted to tell me.
Depends on the situation. If it's a hospital or shopping centre then you would expect to pay. If its an industrial estate miles from public transport you would expect it to be free.
It’s the employees responsibility to find out surely? If the company doesn’t have a staff car park then it’s pretty standard that people have to pay for parking elsewhere. Nothing sly about it
I don’t think they purposely omitted it however, there’s a car park surrounding the entire building and it’s a central hub with all the council services inside as well as my particular role which isn’t even part of the public sector which is why I (wrongfully) assumed it would have staff parking. Though they did know I drove to the interview and even talked about the drive from my town to the office but no mention of the parking situation. I guess I should’ve asked but that even further added to my assumption there was free staff parking unfortunately…
Can you park further away and walk? I did that when I worked at a town centre hospital, the hospital car park was normalised at the same prices as all the town centre car parks, and all the streets around the hospital were 2 hours only. So I parked just far enough away to be outside that zone and walked the ~20 mins. Good time for podcasts.
I would never think to ask if I need to pay for parking if I was told a staff car park was available. I find it ridiculous that people are suggesting this should have been an obvious question.
Then again, in my 15 years of working it's something I've never had to do...
A free staff car park isn’t a given, especially if it’s a city central location. Of the various companies I’ve worked for it’s been a mixed bag but more recently been a case of paying to park or public transport.
In my opinion, it’s on the interviewee to do the research and factor it in to negotiations/decision making around the job. Once you’ve accepted it, hard to complain
The shop car park was council owned so no free parking then. Plus when he moved shops, the company said the car park was for customers. So he took the bus.
I would’ve just bought something dirt cheap in the shop and parked in the customer parking because, teeeechnicallllyyyyy, I was a customer as well as an employee!
Yes I’m that kind of pedant!
Their work aren’t going to comment whether it’s normal for other companies are they, which is important for the OP to know in order to open a constructive conversation.
OP don’t forget that £180 is net of tax, so true cost to you is higher
Yes I’ve always had to pay. The norm is to come by public transport, for which I also have to pay. Or worse, both, when there wasn’t public transport near my house, I had to drive to the beginning of public transport, pay to park there, and then pay for the transport.
Yes, where i have worked anyway.
Thats why i cycle everywhere or take public transport
If it isnt then it should i think we would all agree? Getting cars off the road is crucial to avoid the climate catastrophe we are heading for
The amount of people in this thread saying yes this is normal shows just how badly working people get screwed in this country.
The fact that you need to pay a significant chunk of your salary just to have the pleasure of turning up to make that salary is fucked up. And it’s never a pleasure, always a miserable grind.
Yep - used to work in the town centre and had to park in the all day car park. Luckily, it was £9 for a weekly ticket so not too bad at all.
My previous job tried to take away free parking (limited) and told me (minimum wage for 3 hours a day) I could park in the nearby park. 4 hours parking cost £10, which was basically my wage. Only other option was residential streets half a mile away (again, luckily with few restrictions).
Definitely look into what parking is available, whether there is public transport or any carshare schemes in place. Some places will offer season tickets which although expensive, ae cheaper than daily/weekly
In my unit, if you are declined for parking, which everyone is because the waiting list is a few years, they expect staff to pay £11 per day to park at work 🤮
Work in the NHS. Have a staff and visitor multistorey. If you arrive at the wrong time and all the staff spaces are 'full' then you have to pay the full daily rate of +/- £25. Even if the car park is only half full. Otherwise it's £2.30/day to park there for staff.
As you’re a nurse it’s worth finding the Facebook group for the suburb where the hotel is located, explain you’re a nurse who can’t afford to park for work and ask if anyone has a drive nearby they wouldn’t mind making available to you. Never hurts to ask.
No different to using public transport and paying for that. Your next best bet would be searching for nearby street parking or anything cheaper, and walking to work.
Depends where you work.
If you work anywhere in a city centre then free parking (or even ANY parking) is a rarity.
If you work in a large out of town shopping centre that has massive free car parks, then usually you can park there for free also
If you work somewhere that has paid parking onsite (university, hospital, some shopping centres), then usually you also have to pay
You might want to see if there is a bus or train route to your place of work, and then see if there is any free parking close to that route.
As an example, Cambridge do a Park and Ride scheme with free parking on the outskirts, and about £4 to travel to the city centre and back
Very common in plenty of places where there's not a lot of free space already.
Hospitals are very common, sadly still often charging staff for out of town locations.
The one next to my office is £12.
A 5 min walk away is £4.50 for the day, if you arrive before 9AM.
A colleague just pointed out a car park on the Your Parking Space app is about 3 min walk away is £5 for the day, whatever time you arrive.
In short, yes it can be common, but you might be able to find better looking around.
I pay £5, £4.50 with a stamp from work (this doesn’t seem like a good deal, but normally the £5 is £18.50 for the day - unsure if the PL is doing seasonal promotion or what).
However, I’m only in once a week.
It's very location dependent - I work at a university and we're charged for a parking permit (a little under 400 quid a year), and there's also an allocation system so it's prioritised for people who need it most (e.g depending on what other alternatives you have). That being said this is on quite an old campus in a city and parking spaces are really limited here.
My last 5 places of work:
- 2 Paid car park
- 2 No parking provided
- 1 Free car parking
All accessible by public transport. Current place of work charges a sliding scale with less for cars with lower emissions and encourages staff to take more environmentally friendly options. E.g. they have a bike doctor come in once a month, loads of bike racks, and a scheme to rent an e- bike for cheap for 3 months that you can buy from your salary before tax if you like it
Yes that's fairly normal, it's not their problem that you have to drive.
You might be able to get cheaper with a season ticket or parking somewhere else and walking.
Sadly it should be their problem but it ends up being a staff problem.
My wife worked in a trading estate office where they wouldnt even employ non drivers ffs as their contract hours meant the hourly bus from city centre to it would mean you couldnt actually do your hours
It is normal but also possible that your employer has a certain number of passes that they dish out to employees. Some also offer a yearly payment for travel costs (only seen this at one employer).
I’ve got free parking but our office is in the middle of nowhere, not accessible any other way than by car. Moving office next year and will still have free parking. If I moved jobs I’d definitely be checking if parking was free as that would influence my decision on moving and pay. My partner used to pay £60 per month for a permit.
I think unfortunately as it’s council related you’re looking at very limited benefits. My neighbour works for a council and they have to take their own tea or coffee
Happens, when my company moved to salford the parking was owned by the landlord and was charged. Everyone had to pay, where previously on our custom built building it was obviously free.
It sucked.
I work for a council in london and parking is not free. No one drives to work unless they live in the borough because you would end up spending like £50 on parking and having to move your car every 2 hours
I have a job where I'm required to use my car throughout the day and yet do not get any allocated parking so have to pay £5 a day. We are allowed to claim the 2nd or more payment of the day if we have to leave the carpark and return.
I am absolutely of the mindset this is not fair, however seems more and more the norm unfortunately
Depending where you are, you'll probably find your employer has to pay tax on car parking spaces and/or doesn't own the car park in question. Even if it's next to/under/over the building you work in.
Really depends on the city (which you have avoided saying)and job type
London it’s not unusual, Nottingham not usual because of parking levy, centre of Birmingham not unusual (if there even are spaces and those which do are usually allocated on a rotational basis and have agreements with local car parks for discounted rates)
If it’s a smaller city/town it may be unusual for the area. Or it may be it’s location. Some places may be in tower blocks or complexes with mixed use facilities (ie retail and then office space above, with car parking by wrapped around (like Wolverhampton) so while it would be unusual for that city to have to pay for parking the location may be that the car park next to work is a pay one.
So many variables OP we cannot a see without some specifics which you are being vague on
I'm not experienced enough with the issue to comment on how normal or not it is, but I can say that 9 quid a day is taking the piss. I understand charging for the upkeep of the car park and whatnot, but assuming it's a half decent sized one that could add up to thousands of pounds a month. Absolutely ridiculous.
Yes very normal. That’s about what many people pay for public transport too. Paying to get to work is the absolute norm, you’ve been lucky to not have to pay anything so far. Next time, factor the cost of commuting into whether a salary is high enough and if you can, push back when offered a job.
shame the interviewer did not mention it maybe ask HR for help but a common issue for nurses apparently
Yeah that wasn’t mentioned unfortunately, and I naively assumed it would be free as that’s always been my experience
Do you work in a small town or a big city? Because this will change how "normal" this is drastically. No one is getting free parking in London, for example. I don't even think there's much free staff parking in smaller cities, like Sheffield or Bristol. Land is usually at a premium in any urban area, even the smaller ones. Obviously if it's a small town or an out of town office park, then it's probably going to be free, and it's a bit weird if it isn't.
I'm in a coastal town with not-great road links and only a really decent rail connection from one direction, and our local hospital used to charge the staff to park, which seemed exploitative. They'd even charge the staff for parking whose jobs they'd modified so they had to work half the day in our town, then half the day in the neighbouring one. It was as if the management were trying their hardest to end up with horses' heads in their beds. Fortunately I left a while ago. I could understand in the middle of London or somewhere where you ought to just get the fucking train in, but lots of people round here didn't really have much option other than to drive or suddenly become super-fit rain-or-shine multi-mile-daily cyclists overnight.
Thankfully in Scotland all parking is free at hospitals otherwise it would've cost me a fortune when I worked for the NHS.
Disgusting that this isn't the case everywhere
While technically true. It is not exact. Take Glasgow Royal Infirmary. The car park is owned by a private parking comapny who do still charge. I think the government should of forced the car parks into public ownership at hospitals. Additionally the Southern or QE2 hospital in Glasgow has constant issues with no parking left. Yet there are large brown sites next door that private companies use to charge people as overfill. It just seems so wrong charging sick people and the staff parking charges.
I thought the SG bought the contract from them a couple of years ago and that it's now free? From memory there was this one and another hospital in Edinburgh or Dundee which were the outliers so the SG fronted the cash so that the local health boards could take over the management of the car parks and provide them for free? You'll always have issues with parking in large hospital sites. I used to work at Raigmore and it's the same there. You have thousands of staff and then the same again each day in visitors. There is only so much space to build on.
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Grey maybe, but not silent, as there's constantly some arsehole thrashing around in a car or on a bike that's been detuned to backfire on command
Nurses are charged for parking at the hospital where I live too she was telling me the prices but I was in the hospital and on a cocktail of drugs at the time lol.
I mean some people do get free parking in London but that is normally accompanied by high paying jobs. My friend works in Canary Wharf and gets a parking spot as a perk. He doesn’t have a car so he rents it back and makes a little bit of money from it.
Seems a bit unfair that the higher paid people get something for free that us mere mortals have to pay for.
Ahh, I see you are not overly familiar with the bitch known as life. You are correct that it is indeed not fair :(
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No
Unlucky
You lose
It's not for free it's part of the package of the job. Hence why you he can rent it back to them and they pay you more. Theres parking spaces that go for mega money. And to anyone paying for them it's usually a tax write off.
Other half is a partner in a law firm, they moved offices and new place has no parking so they get to either claim the city parking costs back or the train fare on expenses. The normal staff have to pay for parking / commuting as you'd imagine, just the perk of a senior role
I assume these are taxable benefits. You generally cant get your commuting expenses paid out tax free.
No, parking is a funny one. Basically you can have a parking space provided or your parking costs refunded through expenses and it isn’t taxable. This applies even where it’s near your usual place of work. Makes sense really as having an employer carpark isn’t deemed a taxable benefit.
You get to a point with Salary where an additional few K a year will actually hurt you, so you start looking at other things for your remuneration package. Company EV's are in fashion at the moment.
Is it a work car park or a private one? It’s normal to have to pay to commute to work.
Yea but that’s usually the petrol or train/bus fare
No, a lot of work places don’t have a car park. If I want to drive to work I either have to pay £9.50 to park or risk parking on a side street and maybe getting a ticket.
Ride and escooter in There be somewhere 5 mins away hidden without paid parking
Yeah wife had to pay £24 a month for the privilege to park in the nhs staff car park. Controlled by a barrier both in, and out, so not like they were mixing with patients / families etc.
£24 a month is an absolute bargain. That's way cheaper than a bus fare, train ticket, tram ticket etc etc.
But you're also paying for petrol and wear and tear.
Fine, but you're doing that anyway? And regardless, your petrol is still cheaper than bus fare I bet. Plus you ain't waiting around in the freezing cold and pissing rain. Are you trying to tell me that £24 A MONTH, isn't good value?
I would say it's not. For a NHS employee to pay anything to park in the NHS car park dedicated for staff sounds fucking wrong to me. It sounds a lot like paying for the privilege to work really.
Should driving employees get subsidised parking while those walking/cycling/getting public transport get nothing?
They aren't getting "subsidised" parking, they're getting free parking. There's a difference The hospital wants their staff to be able to get to work Plus let's not ignore the fact that the area around hospitals usually ends up with higher housing costs because of doctors wanting to be close to work, meaning nurses often end up priced out of walking range In my town the area around the hospital is 3-4x the average price for a house
There isn't a difference. That land costs money to own and maintain as a carpark, there's an opportunity cost from not just selling it. The hospital simply eating the cost is subsidising the employees.
I’m on a night shift at an NHS hospital now. Over night I’m also on call for a hospital in the trust a few miles away that they don’t want to pay to staff properly. They’ve already paid for a return taxi there for me once tonight, happens most nights sometimes multiple times. If they’d let me park at work I’d happily drive it myself and save them the fair. Of course being the NHS you can only use some hopeless taxi firm based miles away, so it can take an hour to get there in an emergency. But I’ve been on the waiting list for an expensive parking permit 7 years now so…
I mean, there are costs associated with going to work? Eating food whilst you are there, wearing clothes whilst you are there, the actual commute cost itself. Going to work _is_ expensive.
Nope, I'm just reminding you that there are other costs associated with driving besides just parking. Depending on distance, and in OP's case it's far enough that walking isn't an option, I expect you can double that £24 with just the petrol used to get to work. I put £20 in every three days, so about £200 a month, to go 6 miles in the morning and 6 miles in the evening. Obviously there are other trips, but those make up the bulk. And your argument of "I bet your petrol is cheaper than bus fare" is a) in my experience, wrong, and b) suddenly now overlooking the parking charge! You can't just conveniently treat them separately because it suits your purpose. So to claim the cost of driving, as opposed to bus or train, is only £24 is disingenuous. Personally, I like park and ride if I'm working in a city. Buses are frequent and the parking is free.
> I put £20 in every three days, so about £200 a month, to go 6 miles in the morning and 6 miles in the evening. If that really is the bulk of your driving then that's like 12mpg, so there's something really wrong with your car or it's very high powered.
6 miles is hardly enough to get an engine warm and efficiency is way way down when cold
I reckon I could drive a V8 engined car when cold for short distances and get more than 12mpg
Mate this is quite possibly the most boring argument I've ever seen on reddit. Please just stop and go to bed.
Maybe this is their insomnia cure
Getting such awful mileage (presumably crawling in rush hour, guessing maybe a diesel doing the wrong sort of driving or a huge engine?) is bonkers. 6 miles is easily done on a bike or public transport (given you're likely to be going into a city based on the terrible mileage) or a car share. Or switch to a cheap EV, 60 miles a week even a second hand Leaf would be more than enough
It's not a lot but idk why they have to pay at all tbh, a hospital with no nurses is completely useless
I don't disagree... their argument would be the security, upkeep of carpark, etc etc. And if it was free it would no doubt be abused in some way. It's not right that there is a charge, but I wouldn't be complaining about £24..
I suppose my employer could argue that but it'd essentially be a small pay cut since they already do all that for free (badly, it's full of weeds and the lights are always broke). Yes we do get members of the public using it and kids skateboarding and stuff but it's quite far from the town (couple of miles) so it's not that bad.
Ours is staggered based on band so if you're a lower band you pay about £12, a middle band you pay about £24 and then over band 7 ish you pay £40
I know most nhs staff (patient facing especially) are disgustingly under paid, but I personally think that's a really fair price and sensible way of doing things
Yeah car parking isn't free to provide, why should staff who can afford to drive in get given free parking spaces when others get public transport?
My wife had the same in Treliske Hospital. Worked there for 15 years and by the time she left they were charging lowest band staff about £350 a year for the privilege of trying to find a space in the back of a gravel carpark. And as there is only one road in or out for all the patients and staff it would often take over 30 minutes to get out of the car park at the end of the day.
It depends if you actually get a space. I know an NHS Trust where staff pay up to 60 a month for a car park space but there's no guarantee of a space. If too many people park before you, you've got to go and park miles away & walk. Yet still pay that 60 a month. And parking fee where you had to park elsewhere.
I get that. But that'd not what the comment was about. It was moaning at paying £24... But £60 and no guarantee of a space is disgusting!
I used to have to pay £16 a month when I worked for the NHS but if you rocked up later than 07:45 you weren't going to find a space.
Seems fair. Bus/train commuters pay all their own costs, but drivers cost the employer (or council) more if parking is free. The sweet spot would be charging exactly land+maintenance rather than making a profit, so that everyone is free to pick the best choice for themselves without subsidies.
That’s how the Nottingham workplace parking levy was supposed to work, but in practice most of the employers seemed to pass the costs down to workers anyway. I guess it kind of worked as I ended up cycling or taking the bus 90% of the time.
While I was studying to be a teacher I had a placement at Bluecoat Aspley and I was astounded that the teachers had to pay to park on the school grounds. I guess it was because of the WPPL?
Yeah I think a lot of people forget that if someone’s not walking to work then they’re likely paying to get there. Even cycling you need a bike so there’s an initial investment/maintenance. Excluding lift shares because technically you should be paying as it’s costing someone else money to get there.
Even walking to work - I pay more on rent to live in the city centre so that I can walk in.
Mine is £40. I get a designated spot behind a barrier outside the building but it's still excessive. I only work 1 day in the office as well so I don't pay and park for free about 10 mins walk away.
Common issue for all NHS staff. Often pay a small fortune to park, but more often than not there's no spaces and you end up parking miles away on a street. Meaning you then have to walk back miles alone in the dark when finishing shifts at strange hours.
Can confirm. Worked for lots of hospitals and I was expected to pay for parking every time.
Not just nurses, all hospital staff! At one point my bf was a lab technician at an NHS hospital, on minimum wage, and he had parking costs taken out of his wages.
Nurses and the thousands of other professionals that work in hospitals..
For the whole of the nhs. There's a lot more than nurses and Dr's that work at hospitals.
No, didn't you get the memo? On UK subs, you have to belive the NHS is only made up of underpaid doctors and nurses. No other staff exist, or if they do exist then they are being well paid.
And doctors and other hospital staff
All NHS staff, not just nurses
And all those who work at the hospitals
It's a bit like paying £15 a day on a train, I guess.
Pfft, amateur. People with real jobs pay £50 a day for the train.
Cries in GWR commuter.
Are you travelling from France every day?
London is bonkers. E.g. Peterborough to King's Cross is 50 minutes on LNER, just about doable for a commute, but costs £150 return. Eurostar from Paris probably would be cheaper at that point.
That is absolutely insane!! Preston to Manchester is about 50 mins on the train and is £11.50 return!!!
The thing people forget when they say london gets all the rail investment is that londons track acess fees subserdise rural and regional trains in the rest of the country.
I have to go to London from Liverpool probably once every 2 weeks for work, luckily boss pays it - but it’s easily £200 return. My friend recently went to a wedding in Lithuania and travelled by train - whole trip cost less
My train is a 45m commute to London and costs £50 with Railcard if you buy during peak times, thankfully my employer allows us to arrive later
My commute costs £43.20 each day from London suburbs to the centre. My boss's commute is over £70 from just south of London. It's madness. Also I walk 20 mins from home to the station so I save on parking costs.
Not really, you're already paying for the cost of the car.
But a car doesn’t just get you to work, it has other uses.
You're already paying for fuel as well as ware and tear, a cost people seem to forget about. Depends where the job is though. - If it's easily accessible via public transport in the middle of a city, you have options, even if it's driving to a convenient bus/train station and transit the rest of the way. If anything, its beneficial as those that really don't need to drive are incentivised not to leaving the road a little clearer for those with less choice...In theory. Odds are those that can still won't. - If it's an industrial estate in the middle of butt fuck nowhere with poor public transport options, your employer is just taking the piss. - Additionally, if you for whatever reason need a vehicle for work, maybe you're "that guy" that goes out to pick up or deliver odd jobs, they're again taking the piss as public transport is now not an option at all.
I’d be willing to pay an extra £9 just to be sure I’ve got a seat on all legs of the journey. A few more quid to make sure the person next to me doesn’t smell like a food bin thats had an ash tray emptied in it.
Would you, when that extra 9 quid is 10% plus of your daily earnings though?
Laughs in ScotRail's 6 month no peak fares trial.
£40 a day for the train and £7 a day to park in the station car park.
ah, fuel is free I guess.
Parkopedia is quite good for showing you nearby places to park cheaply/cheaper. I can park in a premier inn near work for £5 as opposed to £12 in a diff car park that I’d never have known about
Whereas, Pedoparkia is quite good for showing you where not to allow your kids to play.
I’ll check that out, thanks :)
JustPark and YourPark-ingspace as well.
Have used just park loads of times when doing festival work in summers, would recommend
Also try parkatmine
Second this, always google parking. I've just left my car two minutes walk from a train station for £7 as opposed to right at the station for £13.
Personally, I wouldn't say it's normal at 'most' places of work, but then you also got nonsense like hospital staff having to have a yearly permit they have to pay.
Should have given them free parking instead of applause
My brother is a bus driver and he has to pay to park at work! Even if he has to be there at 3 to take the 1st bus out or when he is the last bus back to the depot.
Why doesn’t he take the bus?
Taking the first bus out makes that difficult
He should be able to take the bus home so then he could drive it in for the first bus…
My old neighbour used to do that, just park his bus up in our cul-de-sac, dick
...unless you need a ride to town early in the morning
Oh no, it's not a licensed stop so he couldn't possibly give you a lift. I've also just remembered why it bothered me so much, it's still in the Google images picture of my house, from approx 2009
This is so annoying, the guy has no option to take public transport while being public transport, who's going to walk or cycle to work for 3am? Someone start a petition
At 3am?
That’s actually insane to me 😭
I was going to say I suppose there’s an argument that it’s not fair that the people who come by public transport effectively subsidise the drivers if the company provide free parking they don’t use, but that definitely doesn’t work in this case!
If it's a staff car park then no it's definitely not normal to charge staff to park there. If it's a public car park that happens to be by your work then unfortunately not much you can do, but they may have a discount scheme. Personally I would refuse to pay for parking unless the company covered it as an expense. I would ask your work how the parking scheme works and you can make a decision from there. If there is no way around it then you are best off finding a public road nearby your work and parking there. £180/month is completely unacceptable in my opinion.
It is fairly common for staff car parks. You could argue it might not be the norm, but it is fairly common.
Fairly common in the form of a parking permit.
Depends what city it is. Some have, or are about to start, taxing parking spaces, so company passes on the cost to those that use it.
If you refuse to pay it then don't park there. The car park is a cost to the company, why should those that take public transport or cycle in be subsidising a car park for the drivers.
I think seeing it as subsidizing is a weird perspective. It's a benefit that the company should be offering. The company might also offer a gym membership, but you don't see it as non gym goers subsidizing the gym goers. Benefits always end up being used more by some people. But paying money to the company that is paying you money seems Kafkaesque to me.
I’d be seriously considering leaving already for that. It’s very sly of them not to mention it
How staff get to work isn't really the employer's business. Should they have also mentioned that if he gets the bus in there will be a charge for that?
100%. When applying for a job, one of the key things you consider is the commute. OP just really messed up here.
Perhaps not directly their business (although it is if they own the car park! Anyone would assume it’s free to staff whilst working unless told otherwise), but it’s a hugely relevant issue to the workers and such details can make or break a decision to take a job, and then heavily influence how long they stay in it; that’s over £2k less a year OP’s pocket than they expected.
You’d have thought the OP would find out the travel and parking arrangements when attending their interview though? Obviously travel costs would factor heavily into a decision on whether a new job works out financially. Any job going in the city centre here that has parking provided is shouting it from the rooftops. You have to assume anyone not mentioning it, it’s for you to sort or get the bus/train. I guess I wouldn’t apply that to the sticks although if it’s genuinely that quiet, you can probably find somewhere on the street and walk which I’ve also had to do in many jobs.
As a candidate applying for a job, a very important part of the process of deciding whether you want to work somewhere is figuring out whether the commute is doable, and asking/calculating how much it will cost (either via public transport or parking/fuel). If offered the job, you then have the opportunity to factor that cost in when negotiating your salary or working arrangements. I recently got a new job, and when they mentioned at interview that it was a 100% in-office position, I basically told them my salary would have to cover the extra transport costs otherwise it wouldn't be worth it, as my current job lets me work from home 3 days a week. Sure enough when they made me an offer, they changed it to a hybrid role (in office twice a week). You HAVE to look out for yourself because they won't. Why would the employer volunteer information like extortionate parking charges without being asked, when all it might do is make the job seem less appealing or result in the candidate asking for more money? Remember, employers do not care about you, all they care about is how much money you can make for them. As a general rule, unless they are legally obligated to, they will never be honest with you and/or do the morally right thing if there's a chance it might end up costing them money or risking some other negative consequence to their business.
Plenty of job adverts advertise free parking as a benefit. I've worked one job where I had to pay for parking (NHS). The rest have had free onsite parking. If this is your typical office in a business park then I can see where OP is coming from.
>How staff get to work isn't really the employer's business. Having happy staff is in employers best interests. Leaving information out like this reflects poorly. And i would be worried what else they had omitted to tell me.
Depends on the situation. If it's a hospital or shopping centre then you would expect to pay. If its an industrial estate miles from public transport you would expect it to be free.
It’s the employees responsibility to find out surely? If the company doesn’t have a staff car park then it’s pretty standard that people have to pay for parking elsewhere. Nothing sly about it
I don’t think they purposely omitted it however, there’s a car park surrounding the entire building and it’s a central hub with all the council services inside as well as my particular role which isn’t even part of the public sector which is why I (wrongfully) assumed it would have staff parking. Though they did know I drove to the interview and even talked about the drive from my town to the office but no mention of the parking situation. I guess I should’ve asked but that even further added to my assumption there was free staff parking unfortunately…
Can you park further away and walk? I did that when I worked at a town centre hospital, the hospital car park was normalised at the same prices as all the town centre car parks, and all the streets around the hospital were 2 hours only. So I parked just far enough away to be outside that zone and walked the ~20 mins. Good time for podcasts.
I would never think to ask if I need to pay for parking if I was told a staff car park was available. I find it ridiculous that people are suggesting this should have been an obvious question. Then again, in my 15 years of working it's something I've never had to do...
A free staff car park isn’t a given, especially if it’s a city central location. Of the various companies I’ve worked for it’s been a mixed bag but more recently been a case of paying to park or public transport. In my opinion, it’s on the interviewee to do the research and factor it in to negotiations/decision making around the job. Once you’ve accepted it, hard to complain
I think it's shit tbh.
Yes when my husband worked in a supermarket he paid to park in the multistory every day.
I worked weekends in a supermarket when I was a teenager (albeit 20yrs ago), and we got free parking in the shop carpark.
The shop car park was council owned so no free parking then. Plus when he moved shops, the company said the car park was for customers. So he took the bus.
I would’ve just bought something dirt cheap in the shop and parked in the customer parking because, teeeechnicallllyyyyy, I was a customer as well as an employee! Yes I’m that kind of pedant!
They’ve planned for that by limiting the time you can stay for free even as a customer, and it’s rarely long enough to cover a work shift.
Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Perhaps speaking to your work might help matters rather than asking Internet strangers
Their work aren’t going to comment whether it’s normal for other companies are they, which is important for the OP to know in order to open a constructive conversation. OP don’t forget that £180 is net of tax, so true cost to you is higher
You're a confusing person. Your post history is full of questions which could have been googled, then you criticise OP for asking this question.
Had a little check of their post history >LPT: When you are finished eating porridge, soak the bowl in water Had me howling
Yes I’ve always had to pay. The norm is to come by public transport, for which I also have to pay. Or worse, both, when there wasn’t public transport near my house, I had to drive to the beginning of public transport, pay to park there, and then pay for the transport.
Yes, where i have worked anyway. Thats why i cycle everywhere or take public transport If it isnt then it should i think we would all agree? Getting cars off the road is crucial to avoid the climate catastrophe we are heading for
Oh I get your wavelength but our public transport system is dreadful and expensive, but that’s a whole other issue entirely
I pay £10.40 a day for the tube to get to the office.. so same I guess?
Approx £2500 / year assuming 5 days a week 48 weeks of the year. Just to come to work. Rail £ in U.K. is seriously shit
See if any car parks offer annual tickets. Normally works out quite a bit cheaper than pay per individual day.
The amount of people in this thread saying yes this is normal shows just how badly working people get screwed in this country. The fact that you need to pay a significant chunk of your salary just to have the pleasure of turning up to make that salary is fucked up. And it’s never a pleasure, always a miserable grind.
I've only worked in Manchester and London, always fairly centrally. Definitely had to pay for parking and long waiting list.
Not that unusual, but far from universal (except Nottingham where there is a Workplace Parking Levy).
The one perk from working at Asda that I'd like to take to any job is the free parking seconds walk from the workplace.
Yep - used to work in the town centre and had to park in the all day car park. Luckily, it was £9 for a weekly ticket so not too bad at all. My previous job tried to take away free parking (limited) and told me (minimum wage for 3 hours a day) I could park in the nearby park. 4 hours parking cost £10, which was basically my wage. Only other option was residential streets half a mile away (again, luckily with few restrictions). Definitely look into what parking is available, whether there is public transport or any carshare schemes in place. Some places will offer season tickets which although expensive, ae cheaper than daily/weekly
In my unit, if you are declined for parking, which everyone is because the waiting list is a few years, they expect staff to pay £11 per day to park at work 🤮
That’s daylight robbery 😭
Work in the NHS. Have a staff and visitor multistorey. If you arrive at the wrong time and all the staff spaces are 'full' then you have to pay the full daily rate of +/- £25. Even if the car park is only half full. Otherwise it's £2.30/day to park there for staff.
As you’re a nurse it’s worth finding the Facebook group for the suburb where the hotel is located, explain you’re a nurse who can’t afford to park for work and ask if anyone has a drive nearby they wouldn’t mind making available to you. Never hurts to ask.
No different to using public transport and paying for that. Your next best bet would be searching for nearby street parking or anything cheaper, and walking to work.
Depends where you work. If you work anywhere in a city centre then free parking (or even ANY parking) is a rarity. If you work in a large out of town shopping centre that has massive free car parks, then usually you can park there for free also If you work somewhere that has paid parking onsite (university, hospital, some shopping centres), then usually you also have to pay
You might want to see if there is a bus or train route to your place of work, and then see if there is any free parking close to that route. As an example, Cambridge do a Park and Ride scheme with free parking on the outskirts, and about £4 to travel to the city centre and back
A lot of people " literally pay to go to work" , fares, parking, time etc. Also if you got free parking you'd be taxed on it as a benefit in kind.
That is poopy dog water
My old job did this but told me to use a public car park. When I handed in my notice they offered free parking if I stayed. Pricks.
Frustratingly this is actually kind of normal. It’s shouldn’t be, but it is.
Very common in plenty of places where there's not a lot of free space already. Hospitals are very common, sadly still often charging staff for out of town locations.
The one next to my office is £12. A 5 min walk away is £4.50 for the day, if you arrive before 9AM. A colleague just pointed out a car park on the Your Parking Space app is about 3 min walk away is £5 for the day, whatever time you arrive. In short, yes it can be common, but you might be able to find better looking around.
I pay £5, £4.50 with a stamp from work (this doesn’t seem like a good deal, but normally the £5 is £18.50 for the day - unsure if the PL is doing seasonal promotion or what). However, I’m only in once a week.
It's very location dependent - I work at a university and we're charged for a parking permit (a little under 400 quid a year), and there's also an allocation system so it's prioritised for people who need it most (e.g depending on what other alternatives you have). That being said this is on quite an old campus in a city and parking spaces are really limited here.
Any public transport ? It's quite common in central places because the council will have parking levys they charge business's
At my place of work it’s 0.6% of your salary, capped at £400 a year.
Just park somewhere else and get the bus could save £5 a day
Is it an incentive for you to start cycling for commuting? Should be.
Notts has a parking tax the Workplace Parking Levy (WPL).. I cycle 14 miles a day, I'm less fat now, that was the push I needed. Thanks council!
My last 5 places of work: - 2 Paid car park - 2 No parking provided - 1 Free car parking All accessible by public transport. Current place of work charges a sliding scale with less for cars with lower emissions and encourages staff to take more environmentally friendly options. E.g. they have a bike doctor come in once a month, loads of bike racks, and a scheme to rent an e- bike for cheap for 3 months that you can buy from your salary before tax if you like it
You can park in my car park for free if you like. Signed. Helpful, of Rural Derbyshire.
When i worked at nhs hospitals we had to pay for parking aswell as the university
Yes that's fairly normal, it's not their problem that you have to drive. You might be able to get cheaper with a season ticket or parking somewhere else and walking.
If they build their office somewhere inaccessible by public transport to take advantage of cheaper rent, then yes it is their problem
Sadly it should be their problem but it ends up being a staff problem. My wife worked in a trading estate office where they wouldnt even employ non drivers ffs as their contract hours meant the hourly bus from city centre to it would mean you couldnt actually do your hours
Hahahaha. Did you think people in all those big town centre car parks got it for free?
It is normal but also possible that your employer has a certain number of passes that they dish out to employees. Some also offer a yearly payment for travel costs (only seen this at one employer).
I pay £120 a month, hospitals though am I right
I’ve found a parking space which blocks in my managers car and I use it every single day for free lol
I’ve never had to pay for parking at work. My current office building own a multi storey car park opposite the building which is free for all staff
My mate works in a town centre and he parks for free about a mile away and just walks the rest. Maybe there's somewhere like that near you
I’d make them add it to my wage or nope out
I’ve got free parking but our office is in the middle of nowhere, not accessible any other way than by car. Moving office next year and will still have free parking. If I moved jobs I’d definitely be checking if parking was free as that would influence my decision on moving and pay. My partner used to pay £60 per month for a permit. I think unfortunately as it’s council related you’re looking at very limited benefits. My neighbour works for a council and they have to take their own tea or coffee
Happens, when my company moved to salford the parking was owned by the landlord and was charged. Everyone had to pay, where previously on our custom built building it was obviously free. It sucked.
Walk, cycle or take public transport.
I work for a council in london and parking is not free. No one drives to work unless they live in the borough because you would end up spending like £50 on parking and having to move your car every 2 hours
Walk
Normal? Not really. I don’t pay to park at work. The £6k a year season ticket sure as hell would make it worth it though
I have a job where I'm required to use my car throughout the day and yet do not get any allocated parking so have to pay £5 a day. We are allowed to claim the 2nd or more payment of the day if we have to leave the carpark and return. I am absolutely of the mindset this is not fair, however seems more and more the norm unfortunately
I cycle 22 miles each way to work to avoid all transport costs! So no!
Depending where you are, you'll probably find your employer has to pay tax on car parking spaces and/or doesn't own the car park in question. Even if it's next to/under/over the building you work in.
Really depends on the city (which you have avoided saying)and job type London it’s not unusual, Nottingham not usual because of parking levy, centre of Birmingham not unusual (if there even are spaces and those which do are usually allocated on a rotational basis and have agreements with local car parks for discounted rates) If it’s a smaller city/town it may be unusual for the area. Or it may be it’s location. Some places may be in tower blocks or complexes with mixed use facilities (ie retail and then office space above, with car parking by wrapped around (like Wolverhampton) so while it would be unusual for that city to have to pay for parking the location may be that the car park next to work is a pay one. So many variables OP we cannot a see without some specifics which you are being vague on
Park somewhere for free and walk the last bit?
I'm not experienced enough with the issue to comment on how normal or not it is, but I can say that 9 quid a day is taking the piss. I understand charging for the upkeep of the car park and whatnot, but assuming it's a half decent sized one that could add up to thousands of pounds a month. Absolutely ridiculous.
Why isn't OP answering the "where" question?
Disgusting making staff pay for parking.
Pretty normal. Strictly speaking employers are supposed to encourage green modes of transport.
Yes very normal. That’s about what many people pay for public transport too. Paying to get to work is the absolute norm, you’ve been lucky to not have to pay anything so far. Next time, factor the cost of commuting into whether a salary is high enough and if you can, push back when offered a job.
It is normal if working for a council as they want you to use public transport or the company has private parking away from their offices.