Alison Smith, Binstead:

As we are all aware, the parking at St Mary's Hospital has long been far from ideal but the situation seems to be getting increasingly worse. 

Something seriously needs to be done to expand the parking spaces and make room for patients and visitors alike. 

My father has been in hospital since last Friday and I have been up to visit him every day. 

Knowing that I am going to visit him, I am having to allow myself an extra hour just to drive round and round the car parks (both the main and the north car parks) waiting for a space. 

Not only is this bad enough but I am also being charged from the moment I enter the car park.  So during these times I am searching for a valuable space I am being charged for the privilege. 

I am spending approximately £5 per day on visiting which is just crazy. 

Also the car park machines/app very rarely work. The signal is so bad, you cannot get the app to work, even with the wifi (which is terrible), it is so hard to get anything to download. 

So you join the long queue to get to the machines (of which the letters are practically illegible) only for the machine to not recognise your car so you spend even longer inputting what time you arrived and what time you are attempting to leave which then leads to the queue getting even longer.

My son was at the hospital today with his very pregnant girlfriend who had her 35 week scan.  Due to the lack of parking spaces, he had to drop her off at maternity so he could continue driving round to find a space. 

This then led him to missing the vital parts of the scan for his first child and he was understandably very upset.  How can anyone justify this happening? 

With the expansion of A&E, this can only mean more patients so more cars, more queuing and more stress for people who are already under a lot of stress as it is.  

Surely the many grass areas around the hospital can be made into extra parking spaces, still leaving lots of green around to be enjoyed.