It’s not often that ‘Lymington’ and ‘dangerous occupation’ are mentioned in the same sentence. In fact I can’t recall a single such instance. I suppose being the lollipop person on Avenue Road outside the school might count, the interface of children and traffic is always going to be a tad tricky.
But today I came across someone for whom that could be an apt description. Well technically Wife came across them, but anyway. Those with long-ish memories who live in the area may recall that the new Lymington hospital was originally built with a number of ‘green’ aims, possibly highest among them to reduce car usage. The thinking went something like this. If we have 200 parking places for a hospital with staff of 400 and a 4500 projected annual patients then we will be helping to save the planet. And in a remarkable ‘let them eat cake’ moment of clarity, concluded that the local bus service could take the strain and an old single platform station just behind the Somerfields garage could be re-opened to bring patients by train. How glorious to be blessed by such forward-thinking public servants.
Now I don’t know if you can spot any potential holes in the thinking, but here’s one to start off with. The station didn’t re-open. And for some reason sick people, even out-patients find buses a little tricky. So we have the log-jam which is the hospital car-park and return to the previously mentioned hazardous occupation. Viz parking attendant at Lymington Hospital. Wife came out after her blood test to hear an elderly chap berating the parking attendant for the staff cars parked in the disabled spaces. Two things you need for a proper hospital are staff and people who may have limited mobility so bit of a problem really if they need to fill the same space. As Wife left she saw another irate person joining in, and I dare say had she stayed long enough there may have been a pack circling.
Obviously something has to be done.