Following on from the other thread, I am in a similar situation.
I work within a child protection team. We were based in the suburbs with plenty of on-site free parking yet have been moved to a city centre office.
There are on-site car parks but our dept have not been allocated any permits.
We are essential car users and can easily travel in excess of 500 miles/month.
They have also scrapped our £1000/yr essential car user. We get the minimum amount for mileage.
It is not as easy to say pay for a permit at a local car park - they are all full. There are a variety of daily car parks in the area and limited street parking but unless you are able to arrive before 8am you will struggle to get a space. Several of us start slightly later, to enable us to do the school run etc, so we can then be driving around for up to an hour looking for anywhere to park within a 20 minute or so radius.
I know people will say park further afield, use public transport but it is not feasible. We are in and out of the office several times per day; attending meetings, doing home visits, accomodating children etc.
We transport children in our cars and also carry laptops - the department got rid of the computers and we have gone paperless, so our laptops go everywhere.
To make it worse, where the office is located is renowned for muggings etc and cars are always being broken into.
Most of us have also had parking tickets/been clamped/been towed, due to meetings over-running and being slightly late in moving the cars.
I have considered refusing to use my car for work - I would have the same caseload though and the job would be impossible.
Any ideas?
TIA