WARRINGTON Hospital made nearly £1 million from car parking charges in the last year, according to a Freedom of Information request.

Information obtained by Warrington North MP Helen Jones revealed in the past 12 months the trust raised £967,000 from parking charges, a rise of £60,000 on the figure for 2009 -10.

The news follows hospital chiefs approving charges for blue badge holders on the Lovely Lane car park, as previously reported in last week's Warrington Guardian.

Miss Jones said: “With their budgets being squeezed hospitals are relying more and more on the money they raise from parking charges and this means patients and their relatives are paying the price.

“Although the hospital has now introduced free parking for the first half hour most appointments take longer than this and so the minimum charge is £3. This is a real burden for people on low incomes.

“Charges have moved from being a deterrent for people who aren’t patients using the car park to being an income generator for hospitals."

Many readers reacted angrily to the latest parking charges news and wanted to know why blue badge holders could not avoid charges by registering their licence plate, whether board members who approved the decision paid for their parking and if the car park had been sold to a private company.

A hospital spokesman responded: "A blue badge is transferable so a register would not be specific to individual cars and could then be abused.

"The intention of introducing car parking charges for all vehicles is to ensure that all drivers are treated equally.

“Executive directors pay like all staff and this is not repaid by expenses.

"The terms and conditions of the non-executive appointments to date have meant that they are not subject to car parking charges. This is currently under review by the board.

"The car park has not been sold to a private company and the rise that Ms Jones points out is due to the part year effect of the changes in car parking charges which were introduced in October 2013; which was the first increase in 7 years.

"This money is reinvested in to car parking maintenance and patient care.”