Lincolnshire councillors criticise hospital car park price rises for Grantham, Boston and Lincoln

Councillors feel that the sick are being punished by the recent rises in hospital car park prices.

Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group has hiked up the cost of parking at its hospitals in Grantham, Boston and Lincoln.

Under the new measures, which came into force on July 1, it will remain free to park for up to 30 minutes but the cost of longer stays has increased.

Up to one hour has risen from £1 to £2, two hours has increased to £2 from £3 and up to four hours has increased from £2 to £5.

Motorbikes and blue badge holders can still park free of charge.

At a Lincolnshire County Council health scrutiny committee meeting yesterday (July 16), members said they were concerned by the changes.

Coun Jill Sanders, who also sits as an independent member in East Lindsey, criticised the price rise and said that people were being ‘charged’ for being ill.

She added: “People from eastern Lincolnshire have poor bus services to get to hospital. I really regret that people are being charged for being ill.

“While I understand why it’s happened, I don’t think it’s right.”

Lincoln councillor Karen Lee (Labour) said the charges were creating a ‘barrier’ for people to access the hospitals.

She added: “It’s a barrier to access. We need to hear what the car parking charges are going to be used for.

“I think we need to know what the money is going to be used for because it’s particularly difficult to park at all of the hospitals at the moment. I do think it’s a barrier to patients getting treatment.”

The trust has said that its hospital car parks have been improved in recent years.

Coun Lee added: “The improvements I saw in the 21 years I worked in the NHS, until last year, were not huge. I don’t feel an awful lot of money has been spent on improvements.”

See also: 'Hospital car parking prices are a tax on the sick'

Hospital group chief estates and facilities officer Mark Parkhill said: “Parking charges were reduced at the hospitals in 2020 and these prices remained in place until this month. The recent increase brings us in line with other acute hospital trusts.

“The decision was based on several factors, including the need to raise funds for further car park improvements. We recognise attending hospital can sometimes be an emotional and stressful experience, and we have launched a full improvement plan for car parking facilities across our group.

“We analysed the demand and usage of our car parks, which led to changes that have increased capacity for patient parking at Lincoln County Hospital. This has resulted in the creation of 120 additional spaces, as well as preventing staff from parking in public car parks, freeing up spaces for patients and visitors.

“We now have available spaces in public car parks throughout the day and our teams have reported a reduction in concerns about parking availability. We plan to include more blue badge spaces, introduce parent and child spaces for the first time along with sunflower spaces for patients and visitors with a non-visible disability.

“We have resurfaced, re-lined, created pedestrian walkways and provided general grounds maintenance in our car parks. However, we know there is more to do and we are working through improvement plans.”