Parking fees - enough to make you feel sick

PLANNING a hospital visit?

Going by car? Then allow an extra hour, take a pocketful of change and practise your anti-stress techniques. Hospitals in Britain recently came under attack for the amount they charge patients and visitors to park. Newcastle hospitals, for instance, made over £1m profit last year from car parking.

North Tees and Hartlepool made over £860,000 - and have since put their charges up.

Parking charges are a necessary evil.

They deter freeloaders and pay for security - vital to have peace of mind about your car when you have other things to worry about. There are discounts, permits and special rates for people who are at the hospital every day.

But it can still be a considerable expense. And not all of us can get there by public transport.

Hospitals have got much bigger with some almost the size of small towns and have built on their car parks. So they have far more people but less space for their cars.

The other big problem is not only the amount you have to pay but how easy it is to park. If we could guarantee driving straight into an empty space, then we would be more likely to pay up with good grace.

Patients and visitors: Most people arriving at hospital are already under some stress, from mild anxiety to full blown panic mode. Being unable to park is not just irritating, it can easily blow up into a major incident.

Staff: Most hospitals provide some staff parking. But it's not always guaranteed. Worst for staff arriving on shifts starting in the afternoon, when the hospital and its car park is already full of admin staff, outpatients and visitors.

Staff may have to park far away and then have the same long walk in the middle of the night when they finish their shift.

Neighbours: Living near a hospital is not fun. Not only is it hard to get through streets congested with cars, your visitors can never park and often people will find their drives blocked by inconsiderate and desperate parkers. It doesn't make for good relations.

FREEMAN HOSPITAL NEWCASTLE WITH more building work going on, parking was getting desperate and administrators are trying hard. Part of that building work eventually included more parking and they recently moved 102 staff parking spaces from the front of the hospital and have given them to visitors and patients. They have also leafleted their neighbours asking if they can rent their drives for staff parking at £30 a month. Not much response so far, but every little helps. Surrounding streets are for permit holders only and we didn't understand the parking notices. But there were quite a few spaces in the car park in front of the hospital and we found one straightaway.

Costs: £1 an hour between 8am and 5pm. Eyewatering.

Stress level: low.

UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF NORTH DURHAM APPALLING. And once you get into the queue for the public parking, it is almost impossible to opt out. You are trapped, helpless and seething, until eventually it's your turn for a space. It can easily take half an hour or more.

Pity the residents in nearby roads, which are increasingly used.

"We've been caught in the middle between the problems of parking in the centre of Durham, and at the hospital and County Hall and problems of vandalism at the station car park , " says Miranda Jones.

"Often there are cars parked outside our houses for days at a time. It makes it difficult for us to get into our own drives and impossible for our visitors. We have asked for a residents' parking scheme as the situation is becoming impossible."

Costs: 80p for one hour up to £6.10 for 24 hours.

Stress level: Off the scale.

FRIARAGE HOSPITAL, NORTHALLERTON OK, we chose a bad week. They have closed a car park for building work and the May Fair was in town. The Friarage is close to the town centre and public car parks. But at the moment it is virtually impossible to park at the hospital or in the surrounding roads.

Mrs Jean Holloway, who lives in a village above Thirsk and had come to visit her sister, was one of many who had given up and was planning to park her car at the Gateway car park and walk.

" I'd love to come by public transport but my nearest bus stop is two miles away so I have no choice."

Cost: 50p for two hours; £1 for four hours; £2 for 24 hours.

Stress level: High to off the scale JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, MIDDLESBROUGH ONCE an absolute nightmare, this is now merely a bad dream.

Huge car parks, well signed - but at busy times cars are still squashed on to the grass, on verges, perched on corners and squeezed anywhere they can fit in.

We were beaten to our first space but found another fairly swiftly.

Cost: £2.20 for up to 24 hours Stress level: Medium/high NORTH TEES, STOCKTON HAS one of the poshest car parks and the only place where we saw parking wardens in the hospital car park. Can get very busy but early afternoon we just drove straight in and parked.

Cost: £2.60 for an hour; £3 for four hours; £4 for more than four hours.

Stress level: Low/medium DARLINGTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL CLOSE to the town centre and the college - so pity local residents. Nearest streets are permit parking only. We eventually got a place - but only after a considerable wait.

Cost: £1 for first hour, then up to £3 for 24 hours. Or 24 hour's, as the sign says.

Stress level: Medium/high SUNDERLAND NOT much space. Surrounding streets are painted in double yellow lines, which we could only just see beneath all the cars parked on them.

We couldn't find a space and then couldn't get out as we were stuck behind a huge 4x4.

Cost: 80p for two hours; £2.40 for up to 24 hours.

Stress level: High - especially if you get a ticket.

VERDICT: Get used to hospital parking charges and be prepared to pay more. It's the only way you can cut the stress of visiting. Unless you take the bus.

P.S. on Lakeside Farm Shop and Country Cafe featured here last week. Tomorrow is their official opening. William Hague MP (pictured) will be there to do the honours tomorrow morning at around 11am. The farm shop is well signposted and is on the road between Scorton and Northallerton, not far from Kiplin Hall.