"Bob Martin" wrote in message
...
in 238303 20091105 095750 "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:


Others on this thread have suggested an alternative -- pay on exit.

Sounds like a way of having the carpark jammed with abandoned cars. And
also requires more sophisticated equipment than a simple ticket machine.

It works. Car park at QA Hospital Portsmouth is operated by NCP. You
collect
a token on entry and pay at a machine before leaving. Standard NCP
procedure.
Of course, as NCP is a private profit-making venture the ethics of making
a profit
out of sickness and illness are debatable.

There's always going to be a "profit" element of charging for an ancillary
service that could be provided for free, even if it only represents the
salary of the man(men) who manages the charging process (who wouldn't
otherwise have a job if there were no such charges)

tim