On Monday, November 20, Surrey City Council unanimously approved a motion to allow two hour free parking outside of the Surrey Memorial Hospital.
The motion, which was part of newly elected Mayor Doug McCallum's campaign platform, also allows people to park at the City Hall parkade for free. Specifically, it allows visitors to park for free for two hours in 103 on-street pay parking spaces around the hospital and up to 165 spaces at the City Hall Parkade.
“I firmly believed that people visiting their loved ones at Surrey Memorial Hospital should not pay for parking, nor should our citizens have to pay to park their vehicles when conducting business at their “house,” which is City Hall,” said Mayor Doug McCallum.
“This was a promise that my team and I campaigned on and we have taken immediate action to deliver on it.”
City of Surrey
Surrey Hospital Free Parking
The time limit ensures that the spots are being utilized as intended, and therefore to discourage external users, such as park-and-ride, from occupying the stalls for an extended length of time.
With that being said, the city says that the free spaces will represent a loss of $850,000 in annual parking revenue. However, the motion allows people to be with their loved ones in hospital without having to bear a heavy financial burden from parking fees.
