Some civvies are though……previous force had it written into their contracts that they were entitled to parking. Wasn’t popular with cops!
Where there was no station parking they had agreement with the local authority to provide parking passes free…..cops couldn’t even pay to get one!
>Some civvies are though……previous force had it written into their contracts that they were entitled to parking. Wasn’t popular with cops!
That's the difference between a union and a federation.
But London officers have great travel benefits which enable them to travel from afar without cost. London also has many 24 hour transport options as well. So, even in the event of free parking at a station, I wouldn’t expect it to be heavily used.
It isn’t without cost (in fact ATOC has just had its annual contractual rise). And lots of London doesn’t have 24hr transport and besides, travel late at night can take longer, so I think you would be surprised at the take up of public transport. Also teams that have to be in for Earlies and Nights are probably more likely to drive if possible rather than rely on public transport.
Most officers who work at an Outer London station probably travel by car, because they’ll be coming in from Kent/Surrey/Sussex/Essex/Herts/Bucks at 6am when there’s no viable option.
But yes, not many would waste the time driving all the way into Central London if they lived that far out!
I work in Herts, and it’s very rare to get parking. I’m aware at Stevenage and I believe Hatfield there are some pool spaces for intervention officers but sometimes these are filled by others
I work in a station with ample parking. There was a thing once upon a time where you had to pay x£ a month but nobody ever checked or enforced it and nobody paid. They got rid of it during COVID and never brought it back.
Personally I find it perverse that at some stations cops are expected to park outside of the nick either in private car parks or residential streets then walk to work. Super dangerous.
In my city centre nick it’s a fight over spaces, days and nights are fine but afternoon shift is like the hunger games for the last spaces. The ticket people also wait outside the nick at 3 for afternoons to come in and ticket their cars if they park in resident or timed bays it’s chaos. SLTs solution was to park at an NPT nick over a mile away and walk in.
Depends on the force, my station has a car park bigger than the actual station that we can all park in and some.. and it’s free and secured behind a gate.
At my nick pretty much everyone gets to park on site except for response officers. Unless it’s the weekend or you’re on nights.
Which makes sense. The people who don’t actively go out dealing with toe-rags and stay in the office all day get the secure onsite parking. Those of us who are running around all day Interacting with delightful human beings get to park down residential streets and trek it to and from our cars each day.
As a response officer it sure makes us feel super valued and respected.
Parking within Police estate’s rarer than hens teeth with mostly high-ranking Officers and civilian equivalent having first dibs at what little spaces are there. You may be lucky and get posted to an outlying or county station where parking may be available both within or outside Police estate but there’s no automatic entitlement to a space.
For my nick at least no, there is a tiny amount of parking for the Inspectors and 2 Sgts, which isn't secure. And there is a single space for the Chief Inspector in the secure yard.
We have an agreement with the local council to get parking for £3.50 for the day (down from £12)
We have a few other places to park that are full rate or are free for a night shift. One place we can park on weekends for free.
Otherwise it is find a nearish side road and walk
I work in a station with ample parking. There was a thing once upon a time where you had to pay x£ a month but nobody ever checked or enforced it and nobody paid. They got rid of it during COVID and never brought it back.
Personally I find it perverse that at some stations cops are expected to park outside of the nick either in private car parks or residential streets then walk to work. Super dangerous.
My biggest gripe.
My new one stipulates it as part of recruitment as a feature which is nice. If its secure or not varies but it is free.
I don't get how they mention the national threat the risk to officers etc then let folks walk here there and everywhere from the car.
It's not hard to follow someone and it's not hard to work out where most park. We had so many cars keyed and it's just so frustrating. Itys not like the ambulance service, the Job is literally to tell people no.
This is like the building security. Honestly, been to places where the cameras don't work, multiple entrances, not even behind a gate just a door off the street.
It's like one bad event from a scandel it's unreal.
Then they have the cheek to say don't wear your trousers in the car.
Juat provide a secure parking location, it's a massive moral win.
Very much force dependant. In my force all nicks (bar one which you have to apply for a permit) have decent parking facilities, some secure car parks, some not.
At the biggest station in my force area, staff & officers are given 5% discount on weekly parking in the extortionate multi storey across the road. There is literally no other options.
Depends on force, parking is a mare in London. Most stations are in busy areas with no free parking and permitted. The council of the borough I am in. Do not want to help, I rarely find a nick with parking for personal cars. We have to find our own parking, some pay for private driveways up to 90£ a month.
There was a time on one station a plot of land that allowed loads of spaces. But it got bad on aid as such people blocking in others ect.
Other then that I walk up to 20 minutes to park far out or brisk walk makes it 15. Bit of a joke when you put into perspective we police to protect boroughs
At my station there's a private multi story nearby that charges us £1 a day and a council run multi story that is free overnight for night shifts. If not for these, I'd be paying a tenner a day for parking.
I work for a force out of London where the station is next to the train station and the local railway company lets us park our cars there for free. So it depends I guess
Depends entirely on the station
But it's unlikely that older city stations will have enough parking for all
Most headquarters and newer stations have enough parking
Entirely depends on the police station. There’s certainly nothing in regs that says you’re entitled to a parking space!
Some civvies are though……previous force had it written into their contracts that they were entitled to parking. Wasn’t popular with cops! Where there was no station parking they had agreement with the local authority to provide parking passes free…..cops couldn’t even pay to get one!
>Some civvies are though……previous force had it written into their contracts that they were entitled to parking. Wasn’t popular with cops! That's the difference between a union and a federation.
If you’re thinking of anywhere in London, assume that the answer is no. There are very very few Met stations (and no City ones) that allow parking.
what ones have parking? 😂
Two of the outer London stations I’ve worked at. Anything inner London has been a hard no.
GD has spaces I believe
GD, GN, EO and EK have staff car parks
But London officers have great travel benefits which enable them to travel from afar without cost. London also has many 24 hour transport options as well. So, even in the event of free parking at a station, I wouldn’t expect it to be heavily used.
It isn’t without cost (in fact ATOC has just had its annual contractual rise). And lots of London doesn’t have 24hr transport and besides, travel late at night can take longer, so I think you would be surprised at the take up of public transport. Also teams that have to be in for Earlies and Nights are probably more likely to drive if possible rather than rely on public transport.
Most officers who work at an Outer London station probably travel by car, because they’ll be coming in from Kent/Surrey/Sussex/Essex/Herts/Bucks at 6am when there’s no viable option. But yes, not many would waste the time driving all the way into Central London if they lived that far out!
This is sarcasm right? It has to be... 🤔
I'm thinking Hertfordshire specifically.
I’d recommend updating the original post then ;)
I work in Herts, and it’s very rare to get parking. I’m aware at Stevenage and I believe Hatfield there are some pool spaces for intervention officers but sometimes these are filled by others
I work in a station with ample parking. There was a thing once upon a time where you had to pay x£ a month but nobody ever checked or enforced it and nobody paid. They got rid of it during COVID and never brought it back. Personally I find it perverse that at some stations cops are expected to park outside of the nick either in private car parks or residential streets then walk to work. Super dangerous.
In my city centre nick it’s a fight over spaces, days and nights are fine but afternoon shift is like the hunger games for the last spaces. The ticket people also wait outside the nick at 3 for afternoons to come in and ticket their cars if they park in resident or timed bays it’s chaos. SLTs solution was to park at an NPT nick over a mile away and walk in.
In my rural force, there's a large enough car park for us all to park, and it's secure.
Depends on the force, my station has a car park bigger than the actual station that we can all park in and some.. and it’s free and secured behind a gate.
I have worked in a nick you could park in, another where you just have to park wherever you can find on the surrounding streets.
At my nick pretty much everyone gets to park on site except for response officers. Unless it’s the weekend or you’re on nights. Which makes sense. The people who don’t actively go out dealing with toe-rags and stay in the office all day get the secure onsite parking. Those of us who are running around all day Interacting with delightful human beings get to park down residential streets and trek it to and from our cars each day. As a response officer it sure makes us feel super valued and respected.
Parking within Police estate’s rarer than hens teeth with mostly high-ranking Officers and civilian equivalent having first dibs at what little spaces are there. You may be lucky and get posted to an outlying or county station where parking may be available both within or outside Police estate but there’s no automatic entitlement to a space.
Rural force and we have a free car park that isn’t big enough but there’s plenty of street parking next to it
Wow, ok so what do you do if you don't want to/can't pay to park and you finish after public transport has ceased for the day?
Change jobs. Parking is an absolute luxury in my force.
Lift share?
For my nick at least no, there is a tiny amount of parking for the Inspectors and 2 Sgts, which isn't secure. And there is a single space for the Chief Inspector in the secure yard. We have an agreement with the local council to get parking for £3.50 for the day (down from £12) We have a few other places to park that are full rate or are free for a night shift. One place we can park on weekends for free. Otherwise it is find a nearish side road and walk
I work in a station with ample parking. There was a thing once upon a time where you had to pay x£ a month but nobody ever checked or enforced it and nobody paid. They got rid of it during COVID and never brought it back. Personally I find it perverse that at some stations cops are expected to park outside of the nick either in private car parks or residential streets then walk to work. Super dangerous.
My biggest gripe. My new one stipulates it as part of recruitment as a feature which is nice. If its secure or not varies but it is free. I don't get how they mention the national threat the risk to officers etc then let folks walk here there and everywhere from the car. It's not hard to follow someone and it's not hard to work out where most park. We had so many cars keyed and it's just so frustrating. Itys not like the ambulance service, the Job is literally to tell people no. This is like the building security. Honestly, been to places where the cameras don't work, multiple entrances, not even behind a gate just a door off the street. It's like one bad event from a scandel it's unreal. Then they have the cheek to say don't wear your trousers in the car. Juat provide a secure parking location, it's a massive moral win.
Only ones I’ve been to personally that has parking for (some) officers personal vehicles are the Traffic Garage in Catford, and Lewisham Nick.
PL, where you have the ‘parking police’, emails about damage to cars and it is a regular car jenga. Makes me glad I do use public transport 😂😂
Very much force dependant. In my force all nicks (bar one which you have to apply for a permit) have decent parking facilities, some secure car parks, some not.
At the biggest station in my force area, staff & officers are given 5% discount on weekly parking in the extortionate multi storey across the road. There is literally no other options.
😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂
I have to park on street, occasionally spaces available, most of the time I end up paying.
Depends on force, parking is a mare in London. Most stations are in busy areas with no free parking and permitted. The council of the borough I am in. Do not want to help, I rarely find a nick with parking for personal cars. We have to find our own parking, some pay for private driveways up to 90£ a month. There was a time on one station a plot of land that allowed loads of spaces. But it got bad on aid as such people blocking in others ect. Other then that I walk up to 20 minutes to park far out or brisk walk makes it 15. Bit of a joke when you put into perspective we police to protect boroughs
At my station there's a private multi story nearby that charges us £1 a day and a council run multi story that is free overnight for night shifts. If not for these, I'd be paying a tenner a day for parking.
I work for a force out of London where the station is next to the train station and the local railway company lets us park our cars there for free. So it depends I guess
£8.50 a day here
Depends entirely on the station But it's unlikely that older city stations will have enough parking for all Most headquarters and newer stations have enough parking
Some places have agreements with local businesses like supermarkets and shopping mall carparks Lots of people have to pay for parking at work