PARKING charges for staff at Warrington Hospital have nearly doubled, with some facing the prospect of paying close to £500-a-year for their space.

Staff car parking charges at the hospital have increased by around 100 per cent with top-earning member of the workforce set to pay £478.40-a-year in fees.

As part of the increases, workers earning up to £20,000-a-year will pay £156 per annum, staff on a wage of up to £40,000 will be charged £252.20, employees on up to £60,000 will pay £431.60 and those on more than £60,000 face fees of £478.40.

Sharon Gilligan, chief operating officer at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The trust has taken the difficult decision to increase staff car parking charges – the first increase since 2010 despite patient and visitor parking charges increasing since then.

“The decision was taken based upon the trust’s very challenging financial situation which means that increasing staff car parking charges is just one of more than 200 options that the trust is obliged to consider to ensure the future sustainability of the organisation.

“Following an extensive survey of staff rates were set after reviewing 10 other hospital trusts in Cheshire and Merseyside where Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was the lowest charging employer by some margin.”

Income generated by the increased charges will go towards the trust’s £11m cost improvement programme, the leasing of 58 additional off-site spaces on Wellfield Street in addition to the 75 located on Guardian Street and investment in the car park through improved bay markings, signage and monitoring.

Ms Gilligan said that the trust needed to encourage staff to leave their cars at home to solve persistent problems over the number of spaces at Warrington Hospital.

She added: “Car parking capacity is a real issue, particularly at the Warrington site, and that means protecting patients and visitor parking spaces as well as staff spaces.

“Over 3,000 of 4,200 staff hold parking permits and the trust needs to make alternatives to driving more attractive to ensure that patients and visitors are not disadvantaged.

“While accepting that increasing staff parking charges was never going to be popular, this is in fact a cost improvement that can be achieved that will have the least impact on patient services.

“In attempting to be as fair as possible it was decided that this increase will impact many staff on a small scale rather than taking more difficult decisions that would impact a few staff on a major scale.”