Lib Dems slam increased cost of parking for staff at Musgrove Park Hospital

Taunton Deane Liberal Democrats have criticised the way increased parking charges are hitting nurses and NHS workers at Musgrove Park Hospital.

Free parking applied to NHS workers during the pandemic but the Government reintroduced charges from last year. 

A spokesperson for Somerset NHS Foundation Trust has recently confirmed that a standard staff parking permit would cost £43.48 a month - or £521.80 a year – from March 1st. That compares with a cost of only £32 a month before the pandemic.

Gideon Amos, LibDem prospective Parliamentary candidate for the area, said: “The Government has reintroduced parking charges for nurses at the same time as keeping their pay rates down so that they've actually fallen in comparison with inflation.

“Everyone recognises our local NHS Trust has to raise income and it’s great to see our LibDem council increasing park and ride and bus services recently - which we need more people to use.

“But the buck stops with Conservative ministers on this - they can’t clap NHS workers on the doorstep one minute and refuse to pay them a decent wage the next - especially when the pay ministers themselves receive from Parliament has gone up by 28% since 2010, far outstripping what’s happened to nurses‘ and NHS workers’ pay.”

The NHS Trust spokesperson added: “Parking is a scarce resource at Musgrove Park Hospital, like many hospitals around the country.

“We therefore do our best to ensure that permits for colleagues are assessed annually against criteria that consider colleagues’ working hours, how far they live from the hospital, whether they are required to travel as part of their role, and whether there are any extenuating circumstances that should be considered.

“We are very aware of the cost of car parking to our colleagues and have done our best to respond to changing work patterns to, for example, offer a ‘day rate’ permit for colleagues who do not need to travel to the site more than twice a week.”

Parking is provided in a number of locations onsite at Musgrove Park Hospital but is primarily in a multi-storey car park managed by Q-Park.

The spokesperson added: “We are under contract with Q-Park for just under nine years until ownership of the multi-storey car park reverts to the trust.”