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ANGER AT HOSPITAL STAFF PARKING RISE

By Suzanne Pert - Friday, December 15, 2006
ANGER AT HOSPITAL STAFF PARKING RISE
The St Mary’s Hospital car park. Picture by Peter Boam.
STAFF at St Mary’s Hospital, Newport, are paying increased parking charges although the trust is being charged £13,000 a year less by the firm managing the car parks.
The price hike imposed on staff without consultation from December 1 — for some an almost a 100 per cent increase — will bring in around £241,000 after costs and most of this will go towards the trust’s deficit.
The information came from a Freedom of Information Act request from a member of staff, who was angry at the injustice of the increase and that employees were being made to pay a debt which had been incurred by management of the trust, not by staff at grass-roots level.
The man, who did not wish to be named in the paper, said he was making a stand on behalf of not just himself but those too fearful for their jobs to make their voices heard.
In response to the claims made by the employee, the trust issued a statement, saying: “The trust board has agreed to keep existing charges in force until April 2009. This gives staff continuity in terms of charging. We have listened to the points staff have raised and have asked Terence Hart, director of human resources, to look in more detail at the overall issue of car parking and report back to the board for proposals from April 2009 onwards.
“This will include recommendations in terms of ensuring appropriate consultation is undertaken with our staff.”
The man said he was annoyed not just at the size of the increase, from £46 to £75 for those earning under £20,000 and to £90 for staff on £20,000-plus, but also the fact that those who earned more paid more for exactly the same thing.
“Staff are being used to supplement the trust deficit, when a lot of staff already do extra hours for no more money, especially medical staff.
“They will raise £90,000 by the increase imposed on December 1 but they have lost the goodwill of staff. We already pay our taxes like anyone else to fund public services so why should we, as an employee of one of those services, pay extra?” the man said.
The CP has seen paperwork which sets out the amount paid to the management company that runs the car parks. This was £193,270 in 2005 to 2006 and the forecast cost for the year beginning this December when prices went up was £180,050.
In one paper dated August, 2006, and headed Review of Trust Car Parking Arrangements, the need for consultation was dismissed.
“The Care Group (emergency and medicine) questions the need to consult.
“Consultation is not undertaken on other price increases, such as catering. An executive decision needs to be made. Consultation is time-consuming and, as in previous years, the response will be overwhelmingly negative,” said the report.