Hospitals net £8m in parking fees

Photo: Anthony Miller

Car park at Royal Oldham Hospital

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ALMOST £8million was collected by Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust in parking fees over the past three years, new figures have shown.

The trust, which includes The Royal Oldham, North Manchester, Fairfield General, Rochdale Infirmary and community services, collected £7,813,559 of income from parking fees from 2013-2016, placing the hospital trust sixth highest in England.

Barry Waterhouse, Travel and Access Manager at the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: “The amount of income the trust receives each year from car parking charges appears high as we control over 4,800 parking spaces across five locations.

“The total figure quoted gives an approximate value of £1.47 per space per day, before any costs are deducted.

“All of the revenue we get from car parking charges, after costs have been covered, is reinvested back into our facilities across our four main hospital sites.”

He added that parking for patients and visitors who are blue badge holders is free and in August last year the trust introduced further parking concessions for patients and visitors, as well as a lower £1 for up to one hour charge.

Mr Waterhouse continued: “In August 2015 we opened a new 562 space staff parking area at The Royal Oldham Hospital at Westwood Park.

“This represented a significant investment of £2.6m and clearly demonstrates our commitment to reinvest the charges from parking for the benefit of all users.”

The investigation, by Auto Express, found that hospitals in England made over £344million from parking fees in the same period.

The Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust topped the list as the highest earner, collecting £10.8m since 2013.

Central Manchester NHS Foundation Trust was also included in the list and recorded the fifth highest figure of £8.9million.