Parking wardens dished out more than 80 tickets in three days in a crackdown on anti-social parking by staff at a Brighton hospital.
Since Monday (12 October) Brighton and Hove City Council has issued 83 parking tickets to vehicles with NHS passes in residents’ parking bays near the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
The move followed a week of warnings, with an average of 68 notices left each day before wardens started issuing fines.
The council adjusted the rules limiting NHS pass parking to pay and display bays after an outcry from residents, who pay £140 a year for a permit.
Some said that they had spent hours trying to find parking spaces after returning home from work.
Council parking strategy and contracts manager Paul Nicholls told residents about the move at a “virtual” meeting of the Hospital Liaison Group on Wednesday 14 October.
He said that four or five enforcement officers were patrolling the area each day to make sure that the message was getting through.
The NHS passes are issued through a national scheme available to all staff as well as other healthcare workers.
But Mr Nicholls said that the council was not alone in calling for changes to the scheme.
He said that Liverpool and Bristol were among the councils asking the British Parking Association to lobby the government about the problem.
Mr Nicholls said: “We could not have been clearer that we need an exit strategy for the scheme.
“It is widely misused. The eligibility is unclear. All these points have been put back to central government.”
He said that despite lobbying, the British Parking Association told councils that the government’s position was that the rules governing use of the passes would not change at a national level.
In Brighton and Hove, NHS staff can now use the passes only in pay and display bays. The council changed the local rules after complaints from people who live in the area, particularly on the Bristol Estate.
During the coronavirus lockdown, parking was less of an issue. But those entitled to the NHS permits include management, office and support staff, who have returned to work on the Kemp Town site.
Hospital staff can also use a park and ride scheme that runs from the racecourse.
