Outrage over St Helier Hospital parking charges

6.49.56pm GMT Tue 27th Jan 2009

Local people in Carshalton and Wallington are overwhelmingly opposed to hospital car park charges, according to a new survey conducted by Tom Brake MP.

As a result of this overwhelming rejection of the extra financial burden which car park charges place on hospital visitors, Tom is stepping up his campaign against car park charging schemes at St Helier Hospital and hospitals nationwide.

The results of this month's eDemocracy poll, conducted online among local people, were as follows:

• 69% of respondents were opposed to all hospital car-parking charges

• 7% were in favour of charges

Commenting on the result, Tom Brake said that "it is clear that people here think that patients and staff should not be carrying the weight of NHS funding problems. I agree with them completely. We should certainly not be financially penalising the sick or their visitors. "

"I am going to send the results of this survey, along with many of the comments that respondents made, to the Health Secretary Alan Johnson and the Chief Executive of Epsom and St Helier University NHS Trust, and will continue to press them both for action and the abolition of parking charges at English hospitals."