Colchester politicians react to NHS car parking charges

The East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) received a gross income of £2,525,138 from patients or visitors paying to park at its hospital between 2022 and 2023.

The findings mean the trust is ranked as 8th highest in the country when it comes to the amount of money visitors paid for hospital parking during that period.

ESNEFT also received a total of £120,595 from hospital staff who had to pay to park.

Split - The Green Party's candidate said it was particularly cruel to charge vulnerable visitors while the Conservative Party candidate said free visitor parking could be open to abuse (Image: Newsquest)

Candidates vying to replace Will Quince as the next MP of Colchester have now reacted to the findings. 

James Cracknell, Conservative candidate for Colchester at the General Election, said: “It’s important to be reminded of the commitment the Conservative party made.

“To make parking free and end the unfair charges for those in greatest need, including disabled, frequent outpatients, parents of sick children staying overnight and staff working overnight.

“This was done under the Conservative government and is the first time all hospital trusts have committed to doing this.”

Critical - James Cracknell said free parking could be open to abuse leading to not enough spaces (Image: PA)

“Other politicians or parties will, I’m sure say ‘let patients park for free.’ If we were to reduce car parking fees vital services would have to be cut, significantly increasing waiting lists and having a direct, detrimental impact on people needing treatment. 

“If parking was free, it could be open to abuse and would mean that there wouldn't be enough spaces for staff and patients leading to more parking being built - again, this would impact services as they would be cut to find the money.

In regards to NHS staff parking, James Cracknell said: "To have a parking space at the hospital is the 7 per cent of net salary.  It is a big expense for patients and staff.

"Some businesses have staff parking, others don't. The challenge is to find the optimum solution for patients, staff and services. NHS trusts won't stop searching for that and neither will the government."

Funding - Labour's Pam Cox said that if the NHS was properly funded, NHS staff car parking would not be an issue (Image: Newsquest)

Meanwhile, Pam Cox, Labour's General Election candidate for Colchester, said: “If our NHS was properly funded, our hospitals wouldn’t need to raise income from car parking.

"Colchester Hospital's estates needs to clarify their policy. They say that all staff working nights receive free parking, and that other staff pay reduced charges based on what they earn. They also confirm that some patients and visitors are eligible for free or reduced fee parking.

“I’d encourage hospital bosses to continue to be as generous as they can on this score.” 

Legislate - The Liberal Democrat's Martin Goss said the law should change so no trusts in the country could charge for parking (Image: Newsquest)

Martin Goss, Liberal Democrat candidate for Colchester, has also had his say.

“Hospital parking charges have always been an issue and once costs of running the car parks are removed there’s significant profit," he said.

“Until the government changes the law in England all trusts [can] charge.

“This money needs to go back into frontline healthcare and staff in Colchester.”

Cruel - Green candidate Sara Ruth said it was particularly cruel to charge vulnerable people for parking during a cost-of-living crisis (Image: Submitted)

Sara Ruth was selected as Colchester Green Party's General Election candidate before Christmas.

She said: "In a cost of living crisis, it is particularly cruel to charge vulnerable people for a service which is so necessary.

"Nationally, visitors and patients have paid a staggering £400,000 in hospital parking fees every day during 2022/23 to subsidise an under-funded NHS, and staff were charged £46.7m to park at work - eight times the 2021/22 parking rates. This is appalling and unjustifiable.

"It seems like ESNEFT has so many hospital parking spaces precisely so they can extract money from everyone who needs to use a car to get to hospital, which is most people due to how degraded public transport has become."

Sara Ruth further said the "obvious solution" would be to "reverse all of this and fund the NHS properly" while "upgrading" public transport and parking validation schemes for staff, patients and visitors. 

James Cracknell further said that as “most of the money goes back into the hospital” free parking would mean money would have to “come from elsewhere”.

Mr Cracknell also said it was “unclear” whether because parking revenue figures were higher pre-Covid, the figures were lower now because of “parking costs or a change of approach to hospital use”.