South Tees increases car park charges

The James Cook University Hospital and the Friarage Hospital have seen their car parking charges increase in a bid to enable further improvements to be made to car parking facilities.

South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs both hospitals, has been carrying out a wider review of car parking to address concerns raised by both staff and patients in relation to parking.

The predicted investment from the increase in charges, the first increase in over three years, will be spent on replacing car park barriers and introducing new pay machines that accept card payments. A 1,100 space car park for staff has already opened at Prissick Base which, in turn, allowed an additional 236 patient and visitor spaces to be created closer to hospital buildings.

Kevin Oxley, director of Estates, Procurement & ICT, said: “The money raised from car parking charges supports the significant costs to run, maintain and secure our hospitals car parks and to meet costs in line with increased inflation. Anything we raise over and above that is reinvested back into the trust for frontline services. Over the next two years we will invest an additional £600,000 on improving our car parking facilities and while it is never a popular choice to increase our charges, it is necessary.”

The new patient and visitor charges were implemented on 1 November.