SOUTHEND Hospital raked in more than £1.5million from parking charges last year as a result of a big increase in charges.

The record total means the amount the hospital trust has earned every year from motorists has more than doubled in seven years.

In 2008/09, parking fees brought in just £637,000.

Recent increases mean it now costs least £3 to park at the hospital.

Neighbours say the cost of parking is forcing staff and patients to clog up surrounding streets with cars.

Official figures show Southend Hospital has earned £8million from parking since 2008.

However the trust insists it is not profiteering, but has invested the money in maintaining the car parks.

Joanna Wheatley, 43, lives in Shakespeare Avenue, Westcliff, just outside the residents’ parking permit zone imposed to dissuade hospital users from parking off-site.

She said: “We are being punished for where we live. When I leave my house at 7.30am, the roads are completely clogged with hospital staff.

“Sometimes itis difficult even to drive through there.

“The hospital should offer a staff discount for parking. I have sympathy for nurses, as they aren’t paid much. They probably think it’s better to park ten minutes away for free, but it affects the residents.”

Official figures show the trust earned a total of £1.545million from parking during the financial year which ended in March.

The year before, it made £1.395million.

Since then charges have increased yet again, making the hospital more expensive than Basildon Hospital.

Vicky Treadwell, 37, of Barrow Hill Road, Great Wakering, said: “The charges in the car park are atrocious. I had to pay them for almost four weeks, as my husband was in and out.

“Now he is in Basildon, there is plenty of free parking for disabled people and even if you do have to pay, it is only £3 for eight hours.”

Locals say they have noticed an increase in people parking in streets around Prittlewell Chase since the prices went up.

Andrea McGiff, 25, of Springfield Drive, said: “It was always busy before, but on some days now, it’s impossible to get a space on the road.

One of Ukip’s general election policies was to scrap hospital parking charges and Floyd Waterworth, who leads the party’s group on Southend Council, said: “It puts a strain on people's finances at a time when they are already anxious, and that is wrong.”

Southend Hospital ended the last financial year £9.8million in the red. Trust officials say extra income from increasing parking charges in August 2014 helped it make £2.6million of improvements to hospital car parks, including new markings, resurfacing, and lighting.

Jan China, the trust’s director of estates and facilities, said: “Should this income not be forthcoming from charges, we would still have to provide safe parking, with funding coming from income earmarked for frontline patient services.

“This is naturally something we wish to avoid.”

Echo:

TRAFFIC wardens are clamping down on illegal parking near Southend Hospital and the seafront – and also near railway stations and high streets across south Essex, figures suggest.

The Echo has compiled a top ten list of traffic warden hotspots across the area, using figures from the South Essex Parking Partnership, which enforced parking in Basildon, and Castle Point boroughs and Rochford district.

In Southend, where the council organises its own parking enforcement, saw wardens’ favourite target was Western Esplanade, where 1,528 penalty notices were issued last year. raking in £32,019.

Ric Morgan, former Independent councillor for Prittlewell ward, one of the Southend University Hospital Area Residents’ Association members who pushed foraresidents’ parking scheme for the area in 2009.

The scheme now bars hospital workers and visitors from parking nearby, so that residents with permits can park outside their homes.

However, Mr Morgan, who lives in Hobleythick Lane, said: “The scheme has just moved the problem further away – to roads such as mine.

“The residents’ permits, pay and display zones and subsequent fines pay for the enforcement of the scheme.

“The council says remodelling the Bell junction will solve the problem, but it just won’t.”

Martin Richardson, who runs the Happidrome amusement arcade on the seafront, said although the most fines in Southend had been issued in Western Esplanade, wardens were a common sight all along the seafront.

He added: “They do patrol regularly and see the area as a bit of a cash cow.

“We have customers coming in, waving their tickets and saying they thought they could park outside.

Certainly, the signs could be improved on the seafront to warn people.

“They see signs saying City Beach and Shared Space scheme and that restrictions apply, but they don’t realise they can’t park.”