The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has come under fire from its own workforce after announcing a significant increase in charges for staff parking permits.
Currently, staff pay between £8-14 per month in order to park at their place of work but bosses at St Mary’s Hospital have this week announced that the monthly cost is about to be increased – in some cases tripling.
As of 1st November, staff will pay anywhere between £120 to £480 a year for a parking permit. Currently, the most any member of staff pays is £168, based on a salary of £63,862 or above.
As well as introducing a higher monthly charge, the salary bands have been adjusted to throw a greater number of staff into a higher price bracket.
| Current Parking Permit Salary Brackets | Current monthly charge | New monthly charge (from 1st Nov 2024) | New Parking Permit Salary Brackets (from 1st Nov 2024) |
| Below £24,882 | £8 | £10 | Below £25,000 |
| £25,655 to £45,839 | £10 | £18 | £25,000 to £42,000 |
| £47,126 to £63,862 | £12 | £30 | £42,000 to £80,000 |
| Above £63,862 | £14 | £40 | Above £80,000 |
It means a worker currently earning a salary of £43,000 and paying £10 per month for parking will soon have to pay £30 a month – a 3x increase. It is a similar story for someone earning £65,000 and currently paying £14 a month.
One member of staff has commented:
“At a time when the Isle of Wight NHS Trust is struggling with recruitment, when we are often in business continuity or critical incident and staff are exhausted meeting the challenging demands on our services, the hospital has decided to increase parking charges just to attend work!
“They harp on about our well-being and don’t give a crap”.
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Another has said:
“Fees for staff have now more than doubled for most, with some having to fork out an additional £380 per year.
“We are outraged!”
During the COVID pandemic, parking charges for both visitors and staff were suspended but were reintroduced for staff in July 2022.
A spokesperson for the Isle of Wight NHS Trust has said:
“Inflation has had a significant impact on costs of car parking management, maintenance costs and the need to continue to invest in car parking provision improvements that will support staff, patient and visitor safety.
“Unfortunately, this means that we must increase charges to keep pace with these changes. The increased charges are based on staff salaries and are now aligned with other NHS trusts. There are a number of concessionary rates and financial help is available for staff if needed”.
These high salaries do you mean earning or getting them that said no one should have to pay to park at their place off work
Visitor safety?? What as that got to do with staff parking? Any excuse.
Another excuse for the NHS trust , quite frankly it’s disgusting behaviour
Perhaps the NHS trust can explain why the chief executive and their team do not pay any parking charges when they earn huge amounts of money.
No NHS trust gives a #### about the staff
This is UNBELIEAVABLE! Find another way to make money!!!
It’s what happens when you have people with business degrees running a hospital instead of medical degrees.