Making Car Sharing and Car Clubs Work - Case ... - The Civil Service

MAKING CAR SHARING AND CAR CLUBS WORKCASE STUDY SUMMARIESthese tend to be those who have worked for the organisation for a long time, for much ofwhich they have enjoyed unrestricted car parking. Below are a couple of comments fromscheme users, illustrating their range of views on it.“Car sharing helps us work smarter and more efficiently. If you know you’ve got to getsomething done before your lift leaves, you get on and do it.”“It’s a bit galling when you see empty parking spaces that we could have used, butinstead we’ve been made to struggle in on the bus, or spent additional time and moneyusing park and ride. This is a particular problem at certain times of year, like during theschool holidays.”“Those with childcare responsibilities face the greatest problems, as they have lessscope to be flexible, and may not have the capacity to share their vehicles.”“It’s a shame that the preoccupation with car parking has distracted attention from thefact that we’ve moved into this fantastic new building. We’ve got loads of facilities, likestate of the art IT, catering facilities and the gym, which means people don’t need totravel off site as much as they used to.”“If the scheme was abandoned I’d definitely go back to using my car every day, as thealternative public transport option takes so much longer.”Other General Issues3.25 Due to the customer requirements for more work by GCHQ against a range of threats, thevolume of staff at GCHQ is set to rise well above the level anticipated when the ‘doughnut’was conceived and designed. If desk-sharing and other measures fail to absorb thisincrease, the only capacity available to accommodate more building and employees on thesite, would be at the expense of car parking.One the scheme promoters commented: “At present we are in the calm between twostates. We’ve negotiated the initial difficult hurdle of halving car parking spaces, but staffaccepted this in part as they were told it would only be temporary until May 2005. I’m notsure what the reaction will be if/when it becomes apparent that GCHQ may need to cutparking spaces more severely than forecast permanently in the future.”3.26 In gaining planning permission for the Doughnut development GCHQ made significantSection 106 contributions towards the improvement of supporting local infrastructure. It hasestablished a good working relationship with Gloucestershire County Council andCheltenham Borough Council, forming a committee that meets to discuss how the Section106 contributions should be spent. All three organisations are keen to see improvements fornon-car modes, and GCHQ is committed to reducing the volume of its car parking as widerimprovements for cycling, walking, public transport and park and ride are introduced. Whilethe current 1,800 parking spaces is set to rise to 2,890 at the end of the construction periodin May 2005, there is a long term commitment to reduce the number of spaces to 2,476 by2012. Car parking spaces prior to the relocation programme numbered 3,400.Final V1.1, Dec. 2004 - 22 -