Pressure is mounting for NHS staff to be offered free parking after North Yorkshire County Council wrote to the chief executive of Harrogate District Hospital.
NYCC chairman Jim Clark wrote to Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust (HDFT) to ask it to “actively consider” reinstating free parking for staff.
The hospital had previously allowed staff to park for free between late March and September, in recognition of the challenges they faced in the early months of the pandemic. The lost income was supplemented by the government as part of a national scheme.
Speaking to the Stray Ferret about the letter, which he had also sent to other trusts across the county, Cllr Clark said:
“It’s a cross-party issue with unanimous support and it was right, as chairman of the council, that I sent the letter.
“It shows how much the people of not only Harrogate but of North Yorkshire are very grateful for all the NHS does. To charge them to park is a bit of an anomaly.”
The letter also asked the trust to look at options for sustainable travel to help reduce its carbon footprint. Cllr Clark offered NYCC’s help in introducing schemes which would support staff to use environmentally friendly methods of travel.
It took almost five months for the wording of the letter to be agreed, after first being proposed in July by Cllr Geoff Webber, the leader of the Liberal Democrats on NYCC.
He called for councillors to ask all hospital trusts in North Yorkshire to offer free parking, but an amendment was proposed by Cllr Richard Cooper, who represents Harrogate Central for the Conservatives, to remove references to free parking and instead support and encourage “measures which enable staff to travel to and from work sustainably”.
The final version of the letter, which was drafted through the county council’s scrutiny process, includes both the call for free parking and support for sustainable travel. It received the backing of all councillors in November before it was signed and sent by Cllr Clark this month.
Cllr Webber said:
“Many hospital staff put their lives at risk for the community every working day and to charge them over £50 per month to park on site at the hospital, particularly when we are all discouraged from using public transport, is disgraceful.
“The cancellation of parking charges for staff would be a small gesture to show the gratitude of the management and the community.”
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After reinstating parking charges in September, HDFT told staff in December it would donate the £50.50 per month from each staff member to Harrogate Hospital & Community Charity, to be used for a staff health and wellbeing fund.
However, some staff were unhappy about the charges and asked to opt out of the scheme. One frontline worker, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Stray Ferret:
“It feels like a kick in the teeth after all we’ve been through in 2020. We were busy before Christmas but right now it’s manic and we feel we deserve this money back.”
In response, a spokesperson for the hospital trust said:
“Parking charges were suspended in the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic when regular services were completely cancelled. The Trust made the difficult decision to reintroduce charges when normal services resumed in order to protect the very limited space available, and ensure parking was as stress free as possible for patients using our services.
“We do understand the challenges for staff but we believe it would be unfair for the benefit of free car parking to be limited to those with a car parking pass. This is why we have made the commitment that monies raised from staff car parking will be reinvested into the staff welfare fund. This will be specifically used to benefit colleague health and wellbeing all across the Trust. Where it is invested is being decided by a staff group.”
The Stray Ferret contacted HDFT this week about the letter from NYCC. The trust said it had nothing to add to its previous statement.
