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Staff are squeezing their cars on to the grass, and doing anything for a space after 400 parking spaces were removed to make way for the construction of the new Niels Bohr building. Faculty has hired parking attendants to issue DKK 650 parking fines from 1 July
You need the patience of a saint if your office is at the University of Copenhagen’s North Campus, Universitetsparken. 400 parking spaces have at a stroke been removed to make way for the new Niels Bohr Building.
”The staff have to fight for too small an amount of parking spaces, and are having to resort to parking between the trees and on the grass,” says Leif Søndergaard, staff representative and lecturer at the Department of Biology.
According to Anja Gabelgård, architect and senior adviser at the Faculty of Science on the North Campus, 74 temporary spaces are on their way, though she agrees that this isn’t enough to compensate for the old parking spaces.
When the Niels Bohr Building is finished in 2016, 146 new parking spaces will be set up. With other parking space regulations this will mean that 310 new permanent spaces will be available. This fulfills City of Copenhagen requirements.
But this is not enough, according to Leif Søndergaard:
”We have complained about the situation to the Coordination Committee, but faculty management work from the other, Frederiksberg, campus, and so it appears that the problem isn’t taken seriously,” he says.
He points out that many members of staff need their car to get to different parts of the university throughout the day, and adds that the North Campus isn’t in a prime spot when it comes to public transport either, with 2.5km to the nearest station.
And if things weren’t nasty enough already with staff having to fight for non-existent places, the Faculty has hired private parking attendants to issue DKK 650 fines as of 1 July. In the latest newsletter to the Faculty staff, they write that it is ‘to ensure that the remaining spaces are available to staff’.
In the newsletter, they also write that staff and partners can apply for an electronic parking license, and that it’s only legal to park in the designated allotments.
“But there aren’t enough parking spaces in proportion to the amount of staff,” says Leif Søndergaard.
Things look like they will turn from bad to worse.
“It is sure to make for a negative atmosphere if a parking firm starts issuing fines on campus.”
(The warning (in Danish) with the DKK 650 parking ticket to all who infringe, is attached as pdf below this article.)
clba@adm.ku.dk / universitypost@adm.ku.dk
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