www.JustParking.co.uk: Along with progress comes frustration and loss of revenue as the frustrated vent their anger and disappointment. Blogger, Dirtyglasses, had the following to say about a recent trip to Luton Airport which is undergoing major roadworks on it's access roads:
Whilst driving to Luton Airport to pick up our son jetting in from Morocco I had read before leaving that there are major road works on the M1 between Junction 6 and 10.
We raced off the M25 and speeded around a long sweeping right bend and ran straight into a traffic jam to top all traffic jams. Cars went from 60mph to a dead stop and it was a miracle that there were no accidents. Crawling along the slip road we nosed our way onto the M1 and spent from Junction 6 to Junction 10 the Luton Airport exit cruising at a top speed of 10mph or less. Junction 10 was a welcome sight that is until we began another crawl along the East Luton Carriageway road that strangely enough had some major repairs being done to it at the same time.
Attempting to meet a 1.30pm arrival we arrived at Luton Airport just after 2pm and made our way past the endless queues of traffic to the Terminal building. Luckily our son’s flight had landed but he had not reached the arrivals area yet.
I took the opportunity to pay a visit to the toilet and what greeted me as it did all visitors to this country landing at Luton was an ill kept public convenience, it smelt, it was not clean and overall it was untidy. Welcome to the U.K I thought as I proceeded to a cash point to get some as I knew there would be an exorbitant parking fee to pay on exit. All three ATM’s were out of order and it was good to see that out great British reputation for excellent service was holding up well here in Luton Airport.
In addition to the major road works currently underway on the M1 motorway, Luton Borough Council's 'East Luton Corridor' road works project, on the main approach to the Airport, moved into a critical phase from 5th February and is envisioned to continue until May 2007.
From this date, the contractor, Birse, will begin works that will involve the complete reconstruction of the roundabout adjacent to the Holiday Inn Express at London Luton Airport. In order to ensure that the works are delivered safely and expeditiously, the alternative route into the Airport, Percival Way, will be closed to through traffic. For those travelling from the East, diversions will be in place.
The road closure of Percival Way will seriously affect access to London Luton Airport and will cause significant traffic congestion in the local area, particularly at peak times.
But, Dirtyglasses, as a result of a frustrating trip will now see everything to do with Luton Airport in a negative way and goes on to highlight the following problems:
We walked to the departures area where signs glowed saying `Cash Dispensers` that alerted me where to go but as I homed in with card in hand these three ATM’s were out of order as well.
Needing cash we decided to buy some sandwiches and some drinks at the Simply Food M&S food shop with the hope that they would have a cash back facility. £8.50 obviously meant that the prices won’t included in the Simply statement otherwise it would have to be called Simply Pricey and that wouldn’t be allowed.
Once outside the Terminal the car park paying machines were lined up neatly and I am sure I heard music coming from them and it was a song called `Give us your money geezer`.
£5.50 for around 1 hours parking is a nice little earner especially when the car park amounted to some rough ground next to the terminal, no gleaming concrete helter skelter here like at Gatwick. The queues of cars trying to leave the car park stretched well back into the car park itself so we decided to sit in the car for a while and eat our overpriced sandwiches whilst waiting a while.
A good lesson for any airport that has any form of control over or that is planning on expansion - "Make sure that you have all bases covered, because if you don't, people will complain and find fault with everything, and, make no mistake, this will impact on your business!"
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