Parking fee at RAF Museum Cosford

[Nick]

Just found this item on the RAF Museum site....
Car Parking at RAF Museum

From 1st August 2009, a small car parking charge will be payable by visitors to the Royal Air Force Museum's Cosford site. The income generated will be used to assist in meeting the costs of maintaining the Museum's national collection and of operating its sites.

Car Park fees are:

0-3 Hours - £2.00 per car
3-8 Hours - £3.00 per car

Coaches are free of charge
Blue Badge holders - charges apply as above

While the museum is free to visit (and long may that remain!) I do find the time limits to be questionable. I've easily spent over 4 hours there without realising it. On the plus side if they have a Private Parking Company enforcing the times any tickets issued would be legally unenforcable unless issued by a local council authority.
Blue Badge holders (disabled etc) may moan about paying but this is a voluntary day out, not a necessary hospital trip.

[B777LR]

£3? Thats nothing, really. I typically donate at least what is equal to £10 at museums with free admitance.

[Hobbes]

(groan)
That seems rather pointless to me. UKP 3/day/space means the parking fees would just about cover the cost of the equipment and enforcer. And it's not as if they're short of parking space. Or are they? The one time I was there was a gloomy November monday and the place was virtually empty, I hope for them they see a bit more traffic than that on average.

[Thorvic]

You should have seen it at the model show in April - it was chocker !!. But yes £3 is quite reasonible, try going to Duxford with its enterance fee !.

G

[Martin H]

the price is reasonable indeed.

not so sure as to the motive, Cosford wasnt to pleased when Hendon dictated that if they had to be free to enter (Government policy for national museum in side the M25) then so did Cosford.
the parking fee could well be an entry fee in disguise.

[lancer]

I have no problem with that fee, espcially if it does go to the museums upkeep. However I was under the impression that the RAFmuseum's are lottery funded now or has that dried up too.

Oh Nick, I AM a blue badge holder!! Do you see me moaning about it??? Please try and be more careful when you make staememnts like that please It sometimes  offends!

[nev]

Can't really complain - you can take a family of 7 there and it will only cost you £3 for the day.

My ONLY complaint about Cosford is that they don't have any planes or cockpits opened up for the kids to go in.  We walked round the entire place without a single one.  Compare that to Doncaster were they have several (Isaac spent ages in the cockpit of the Scout collecting apples from Africa and taking them to Grandmas in Chesterfield!).  Looking on the comments board there it seemed to be a frequent observation.

The kids "world of flight" section or whatever its called is very good, but when we went (half-term) there were dozens of kids, and only 5 or 6 items that they wanted to play with, the rest being too complicated or boring.  I'm afraid it was "big-boys get first dibs on everything"   I thought it was going to come to blows at one point over the Hercules air-drop!

[Nick]

I've got a theory.... while entry to some UK museums is funded by the Govt to support their collections and buildings (hence the postcode checks and headcounts) there is no direct support for car parks and access roads. So this car park fee is to help boost the museum funding nominally in that respect.
I also suspect there is a Govt directive for museums to make money in other ways which is why they all have conference facilities and host product launches etc.

Lance, regarding the blue badges I am well aware of your situation which is why I said 'MAY complain' and not 'WILL'. Consider where I work in central London and that on certain days I manage the coach parking bays. Each time blue badge holders ask me where they can park. Some of them look shocked at the idea that they may have to pay for parking like everyone else, even at reduced rates. Everybody hopes to get something for nothing! Of course, there are a few free blue badge bays in the area.
http://bluebadge.direct.gov.uk/

[NARSES2]

the price is reasonable indeed.

not so sure as to the motive, Cosford wasnt to pleased when Hendon dictated that if they had to be free to enter (Government policy for national museum in side the M25) then so did Cosford.
the parking fee could well be an entry fee in disguise.

Ah it's national museums that are free. Wondered why the London Transport Museum was £10