Anger over parking costs

Students are having to pay up to £1200 a year for parking on campus because they have a residential parking permit.

The University of Sunderland will not allow students who own a residential parking permit to also apply for a parking permit for any of the university’s campuses. This means that those students who live in Halls of Residence, such as Clanny House, and own a car have to pay one pound an hour which on some days can add up to eight pounds a day.

Over a 40 week university year this would amount to an average of £1200 – A third of university fees for a year.

Students who do not have a residential parking permit need only pay £1 a day to park on campus.

Kayleigh Munday, a first year student, said: “It’s ridiculous. I brought my car to university so I could drive to lectures everyday and not have to get the bus but it’s too expensive to park.

“I would have expected the university to understand that if a student was living at Halls of Residence and had brought their car then they would be more than likely drive to university.”

Miss Munday lives in Clanny House in South Hylton and studies at St. Peter’s Campus so she said it is unrealistic for her to walk to university in the morning.

Students have resorted to parking on nearby streets she said: “The streets are not very safe to be parking on and they’re very risky. There’s not always spaces, no matter how early I get there in a morning so sometimes I have to park in the car park and end up having to pay one pound an hour anyway.”

A spokesperson for the university said: “Facilities have funded the Campus Bus now for several years. The bus has provided frequent, safe and reliable transport to and from the Halls of Residence to all the teaching campuses – alleviating the need for residential students to use their own vehicles.”

However, Miss Munday said, “The campus circular bus is always full when it arrives which means being late for lectures or having to pay for a taxi so it would be a lot easier to drive to my lectures.

To gurantee a seat on the bus you have to get there at least 20 minutes before the bus is due and when it does come it involves being pushed around. At eight o’clock in the morning this isn’t very fun.”

Kayleigh is hoping the universities car park permit rules will change so she will be able to drive to her lectures and only pay £1 for the day to park.