Shropshire Star

Telford councillors urged to support call to scrap higher parking charges

The leader of Telford's Tory opposition will ask councillors to support a motion calling on Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust to scrap its new higher parking fees.

Published
Princess Royal Hospital in Telford

The new charges, which came into force earlier this month, have seen increases across the board, with up to 24 hours of parking at Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal Hospitals now costing £8 – more than double the £3.50 it cost previously.

Councillor Andrew Eade is expected to table a notice of motion at a meeting of Telford & Wrekin's full council next week.

The motion, which will be seconded by Councillor Nigel Dugmore, says: "This council condemns the proposed parking charge increase at the Princess Royal Hospital at Telford and calls on Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) to withdraw their proposals."

Councillors will be asked to support the proposal in a vote.

It comes after Telford & Wrekin Council wrote to the trust over "unjustifiable increases" in parking charges.

The authority previously described the increases introduced by the trust as "a tax on visiting the sick”.

The council says it has also written to MPs about the changes.

Councillor Arnold England, Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet member for communities, health and wellbeing said: “The Department of Health’s own guidance to NHS trusts says charges should be ‘reasonable for the area’.

“The rate of inflation is three per cent and in Telford the average salary is around £22,500.

“Visitors have struggled to find anywhere to park at the Princess Royal Hospital, resorting to parking on grass verges which, at times, have been the only spaces available.

“These are unreasonable and unjustifiable increases. They will not help the parking situation, they go against the Department of Health’s guidance and they financially punish people who need to visit hospital during an inevitably difficult and stressful time.

“The Government should fund our NHS properly so that trusts don’t need to resort to trying to prop up their finances by charging for car parking. We call on these increases to be withdrawn immediately.”

Bosses at SaTH said it was the first change to car parking charges at SaTH in four years and the trust was still among the lowest in the country, with people able to park for up to 20 minutes without charge.

Earlier this year it was revealed that visitors and staff have paid out more than £4 million to park at Shropshire's main hospitals in the past three years.

The full council meeting will take place at Oakengates Theatre on Thursday at 6pm.