Friday 21-11-2025 - 14:36

 

 

Isn’t this ancient history? It feels like an age since I last had an update to give on the new car parking policy which the University implemented over the summer, moving to 24/7 automated enforcement, where parking in the evenings and weekends used to be free. 

 

 
Through a semi-viral social media campaign, and a number of meetings with the Vice Chancellor and University Facilities, our first win came a couple months ago with an option to park for three hours in the evenings and weekends for £1.  While this was progress, our stance then, as it still is now, was that any cost was too high for students to pay, and this still posed a barrier to participation for our array of student sports clubs and societies. And so, we pushed on, urging the University to:

• Return the parking charges to their original timings; 
• Commit to these timings going forward for as long as the above-mentioned reasons continue to be factors, and; 
• Evaluate the process by which parking charge notices (PCNs) are issued to safeguard those students who may not have access to post sent to a home address, and who are unable to cover the costs of a fine. 

 

So, what have we achieved? 
After continued negotiations, the University have granted us permission to administer a new out of hours parking permit, allowing you to park on campus from 6pm to 8am Monday to Friday, and all weekend, costing £25 per vehicle for the whole year up to 30th June 2026. You can buy an out-of-hours parking permit here.

If you need this permit, but cannot afford it, please let us know and we will negotiate with the parking team on a case-by-case basis to compromise so that cost will not be a barrier to you. 
As the University have asked us to deliver the administration of these permits, they have offered LUSU 6% commission on each permit sold. This money will go straight back into sports and societies, either into access funds, or reducing the cost of participation in other ways. 

Is this what we wanted? 
You’ll possibly be thinking we’re back in the boat of “but that’s not what we asked for”, and when the permit was proposed to us this was exactly our thought too; £25 is still a cost, and therefore still a barrier to participation. However, we were concerned that the longer we pushed and waited for a completely fair and free solution, students will be spending money daily that they don’t need to in order to partake in their extra-curricular activities. 

Therefore, we raised the matter with our Sports and Societies Committees, and at Union Assembly (LUSU’s student governing body) to guide our decision, and the feeling was hugely supportive of accepting the offer presented to us. The mandate given to us was to limit the ongoing impact of daily charges on our students, while still pushing for more student friendly alternatives to driving such as cheaper bus fares and better cycle lanes that would reduce the need for cars on campus in the long term. 

Parking Charge Notices (PCNs) – fines with a human touch 
The other factor we urged the University to consider was the matter of PCNs being issued to the registered address of the vehicle, potentially leading students to return home at the holidays to a pile of fines which they simply wouldn’t be able to afford amidst the current financial climate.  

Unfortunately, without providing student term time address information to the third-party parking provider (a GDPR nightmare that we would never endorse!), there is no other way to issue these PCNs under the automated camera system now in place. However, I have been given assurance that every PCN issued is reviewed by the University Car Parking team before it is sent out, meaning if there is an issue whereby one vehicle is receiving many fines, they will intervene and attempt to offer support. 
This ability to intervene also applies in cases where there is a clear case that a PCN would be unfair to issue – for example, if there is an incident on the A6 that means no one can get their vehicles off campus, fines will not be issued. 

 

What's next? 
This is a huge win for the Students’ Union, our actions here have directly resulted in a fairer outcome for students that simply wouldn’t have happened without it. 
We will now be working with the University to fulfil the mandate given to us by Union Assembly, looking into other ways to give students the mobility to get to, from, and around campus that won’t break the bank, and will reduce the need for cars on campus.