The firm which runs parking at Shropshire’s two main hospitals was paid more than £500,000 for its services last year, it was today confirmed.

But bosses of CP Plus said only a small amount of the fee was profit and the rest covered running costs. Visitors and patients spent £1,314,035 to park at the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal Hospitals in 2010/11.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act showed that the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust kept £787,358, while CP Plus took £546,776.

But Gavin Povey, head of development at CP Plus, said the money covered the investment made at the start of the contract, including building a 70 space car park, staffing costs, banking and administration.

Mr Povey said there was a huge cost involved in setting up and running the service.

He said CP Plus did make money from the contract, but it was ‘nowhere near’ £500,000 after its costs were taken into account. “It’s not excessive,” Mr Povey added. He described the amount the firm made as comparable to the market rate.

Telford borough councillor Mike Ion, who made the Freedom of Information request, wants an urgent review of parking charges at the hospitals, and is writing to the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs the sites, asking for charges to be capped at £1 per visit until 2013.

The standard charge is £2. Mr Ion also wants the trust to bring forward plans to scrap the charges by 2014.

Adam Cairns, the hospital trust’s chief executive, said: “The income we receive from staff and public car parking contributes towards both the costs of providing and maintaining our car parks and supporting hospital services. The money retained by CP Plus is used to cover their costs, such as staff and equipment.

“We would expect to incur similar operating costs if we were running the car parks. Whether we charge for car parking or not we would still need a management system.”

See also:

• Leader: Hospital car parking charges are a tax on the sick