New Cross Hospital's parking fees causing chaos on roads

Workers at the hospital now have to fork out up to £5 a week or £21 a month to leave their cars on-site during their shifts. The new charges started this week and staff had previously been allowed to park for free. The changes have sparked anger from residents who claim the roads are already blocked with visitors leaving their cars to avoid the parking fees.

Mark Eccleston, who is retired and 72, and has lived in Coronation Road for the last 40 years said parking has got much worse in the last couple of years.

He said: "People need to use their loaf a bit more.

"They park sometimes that you can't get out of your own driveway.

"I have scratched my bumper on the post before trying to squeeze out before."

Kevin Snaith, a 53-year-old metal polisher who has lived in Wolverhampton Road for 27 years, is worried about the problem getting worse.

He said: "It's every day of the week, I can't even park outside the front of my house some days and I have to leave the car right down the road."

Another Coronation Road resident Roy Hallard, aged 59, said: "It's already really bad, it's any time of day really. I think it is visitors at the moment, but it's even bad on Sundays.

"All of the cars outside now don't belong to the neighbours, so any more is going to make it worse."

The parking charges were being introduced as it emerged the hospital had failed in its bid for Foundation Trust status.

Last month, bosses at the trust doubled the cost of short-stay parking, axed free disabled parking and earlier this year they increased the cost of longer-stay parking by up to 50 per cent.

Heath Town ward councillor Milkinder Jaspal has campaigned for action around the site as he said the high price of parking on-site had the negative effect of encouraging people to park on the streets instead.