Woman issues warning to others about parking charges at Warwick Hospital

A woman is warning other about parking charges at Warwick Hospital after she recently received a parking fine.

Kate Illston-Coe went to the hospital with her 92-year-old mother on August 10 for an appointment at the eye clinic.

She wants to warn people that the new parking system has been reinstated.

Kate said: "I would like to highlight the new parking system that is now in force in Warwick hospital to make other users aware of the outrageous charges that are currently in place.

"I recently took my 92-year-old old mother to the hospital for an eye appointment.

"I was not aware of the new parking charges and it is not clearly signposted on the entrance - in fact there is nothing to indicate that you should be paying for parking space.

"I am infuriated that after helping my mother to get to her appointment and with her also holding a disabled parking certificate that I then received a parking fine for £85 - that seems a huge amount of money.

"If the new parking regulation were clearly visible I would have payed for parking.

"Although I feel that it is outrageous to charge pensioners to park their cars when they have no other choice but to use the car park as mobility is difficult for a lot of elderly people.

"Because of Covid there was nobody around to ask what was happening at the hospital regarding parking, this is such an unfair system where pensions who possible need to go to hospital on more regular visits are held to ransom for being old.

"The first time I was aware of any parking discrepancy was thought a parking notice received through the post around August.19.

"The point particularly about the ticket is that a few weeks before the parking payment system had been completely stopped, so it is so confusing for people when there are no notification of reinstatement."

A spokesperson for South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust said: “During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic the Trust made a decision to temporarily stop parking charges to support staff and our local community.

"On Saturday August 1, in line with other hospital trusts, car parking charges were reinstated for patients, visitors and staff.

"To ensure everyone visiting our hospital sites were fully aware of this change, the Trust installed additional signage across our car parks two weeks prior to the charges being reinstalled.

"In addition security officers, which are based in the security office in Warwick Hospital’s main car park, are able to provide car parking assistance and answer any queries.

“On site signage, as well as information provided on the Trust website, states that car parking charges apply to blue badge holders.

"This has been the case since October 2013 and is in line with the national travel cost scheme, which states that the only exemption to car parking charges is for patients who are on means tested benefits.

"If blue badge holders are on means tested benefits they can claim these costs back.

“Without knowing the details and what correspondence has been received, it is difficult to comment on this specific case.

"We do know, however, that the company that manages our car park would have sent out an initial penalty notice letter.

"If this is not appealed or paid, a reminder is sent out 28 days later. There is a discount if the fine is paid within 14 days.

“All car parking income generated is reinvested back into the car parks to ensure that they remain safe and secure.

"Without charging, necessary maintenance work would have to be funded by the NHS, impacting on the money which is available for direct patient care.”