Hi, does rural mean there is no proper foot path to walk on. Also are you allowing for shorter daylight hours in winter (along with snow and ice) and I presume no street lighting.

I would be interested to know if this would be allowed assuming the staff have no other way to get to work other than drive.

Doe anybody have a definative answer?

Unless the person complaining has some form of disabilities (mobility), where suitable access and egress may be an issues, the there is no legislative requirement for you to provide staff car parking. However, allocating parking spaces for customers use and telling staffs that they have use alternative parking space might be discriminating especially if the alternative is not sited nearby

There is no legal requirement to provide parking and it is up to you who you have park on your site. You only have to ensure that your site is ok during cold and ice. It is not your responsibility to ensure that people get to or from work safely, otherwise you could be expected to grit all the roads from every employers house and this would be ridiculous.

You have explained the reasoning behind it and thats all there is to it. We have a large hospital near the workplace and the staff have started parking along the roads as to not pay for parking. It wouldn't be up to the NHS to ensure that they have free parking spaces for them and it will not be up to them to grit all the footpaths along the road to ensure the employee safety.

Ask specifically which part of the legislation they are referring to - so you can answer their query without guessing. By guessing it gives trhem an oportunity to say - "thats what I meant".

you aren't responsible for providing parking for staff, it is for your staff to get to work and by renting a car park you are going beyond what you need to do especially with the extra considerations you have added. It's not really your problem how your staff get to work and you aren't responsible for them while they are on a public highway (unless it is part of their work). I don't think the HASAWA could be applied re access and egress, I would assume you've not got any potholes or obstructions making entry onto your property unsafe from the public highway.

In all reality this could be considered an HR issue as if you have provided parking long term in the past it could be considered custom and practice and effectively become part of their contract of employment (unwritten of course). It may be worth putting it in writing that the car parking and time allowance to move vehicles etc is a courtesy, is not going to be consideered a permanent solution and may be withdrawn at your discression (may be worth getting some professional HR advice just to confirm where you stand).

Indeed true Ron; I think this thread is fairly typical of employers' fear and misunderstanding of H&S legislation and/or the fear that their employees might have some spurious claim against them.