"if you leave it even 1 minute past, you WILL be clamped"
These were the words i was met with regarding parking outside the flat i pay nearly £4,000 a year to live in.
I was phoning up lincoln university’s security department to enquire, quite nicely, about the options of getting something along the lines of a temporary parking permit so that, when i make the 2 hour drive to lincoln for my exams, i have somewhere to park my car.
Now i didnt think this would be an issue. Surely, they dont expect every student to fork out shed loads of cash they dont have on train tickets/bus fares when so many of them could do the drive up and down on less than 20 quid. And i was more than happy to pay a few quid for a temporary pass or the like to allow me to park in the perpetually empty car park outside my building.
So, out came the phone and before long, i had been put through to lincoln’s security people.
“oh, hello, i live in the student village and im driving over for my exams on sunday evening, i was wondering if you could tell me what the procedure would be for parking in the courts car parks. Is there a temporary permit i could buy?”
“no. You cant park there”
“what? at all?”
“you can park between 4pm and 3am, but if you are there even a minute after 3am, you WILL be clamped”.
“rrright, so can you tell me of any other places i could park?”
“no”
“oh. Sooo, what exactly does the university expect students to do when they come in for exams?”
“there are signs in the village explaining parking procedures, you know thatyou cant park there.” - notice how my question is not answered in the slightest.
“So, considering im paying almost £4,000 to live there, why is it that im not allowed to park my car there for a couple of days while i sit my finals?”
“its the universities regulations”
“yes but WHY is it their regulations”
“I can’t tell you that”
“right, thanks” - i hang up.
Now im no strangers to the complete lack of care and service recieved at lincoln universities student housing. After my hot water was deemed to be at a ‘very dangerous’ temperature and that something will be done “immediately” in november 2007, im told it is still at that temperature in may 2008. One of my flatmates went for weeks with no key for her door as the accommodation service didnt get round to providing her with new ones. We went for months with a broken hoover even after we phoned up for a new one perhaps 7 or 8 times, then were complained at for the state of the carpets.
Now this is bad, but it annoyes me more when we got a letter demanding money off us, the day after we discharged a fire extinguisher. Fine, i admit, we shouldnt have done it and im hapy to pay for its refill. But i dont like how they ignore all of our problems, fobbing us off with ridiculous excuses but are all over us the moment ANYTHING happens they could ask for money about.
And now the car parking thing is really just the last straw in it all. Dont get me wrong, i’ve loved living there. Ive made fantastic friends and had a whole heap of fun in the area. But the service provided for such a huge amount of money is appalling. Truly appalling.
I really do think ‘shame on you Lincoln.’
