Lloyd slams hospital two-tier parking charges

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 31st Mar 2009

Parking charges set by the local mental health trust are significantly lower than those at the DGH, according to figures uncovered by Stephen Lloyd, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesman for Eastbourne & Willingdon.

The NHS Estates and Facilities directorate provides information on average charges per hour for patients and visitors. The average for East Sussex Hospital NHS Trust, which runs Eastbourne District General Hospital and the Conquest in Hastings, was £2 in 2007-8. The average for Sussex Partnership Foundation NHS Trust was just ten pence - a difference of £1.90 per hour.

Speaking on Tuesday, Stephen said, "I was staggered to find such a difference in average hourly fees. Our local mental health trust is obviously giving a much fairer deal to local people in respect of hospital parking and they should be congratulated for this.

"However, I can well understand how angry residents of the Rodmill Estate will be to discover such a difference in parking charges. They have been suffering the consequences as visitors to the DGH park on their roads rather than, understandably, pay such expensive charges in the hospital car-park. We have already discovered that East Sussex NHS Trust charges are the 16th highest out of all the 400 NHS Trusts in England and Wales, so this price difference is adding insult to injury.

Stephen added: "I was very disappointed recently that the Trust also deferred the introduction of pay-as-you leave parking for a further year despite their earlier promise. I would hope the Board will re-consider their decision in the light of this latest information on NHS parking charges."