COVENTRY North West MP Taiwo Owatemi’s petition demanding for ‘extortionate’ car parking charges for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS staff to be scrapped has gained 821 signatures.
The petition was submitted to the Department for Health and Social Care on Monday and Ms Owatemi was joined by staff nurse Sarah D’Souza who travelled from Keresley.
Ms Owatemi said car parking charges at UHCW cost a full-time member of staff £600-a-year, claiming the area’s NHS Trust generated more revenue from parking charges than any other in the country.
On handing in the petition, Ms Owatemi said: “This charge is unacceptable and unaffordable. It means an effective £600-a-year pay cut for NHS staff during a cost-of-living crisis.
“Nurses, porters, cleaners, cooks, ambulance drivers and junior doctors all desperately need support to make ends meet this winter – and this parking charge is the very last thing they need.”
Sarah D’Souza added: “It’s so important the Government understands how we feel about these unfair charges.
“Staff across Coventry are having to pay £50-a-month — an amount which has been increased this year — to be able to care for those who are sick and unwell, costing us each £600-a-year.
- “The amount ought to be lowered in this time of soaring costs, not increased, and it’s high time the Government offered a helping hand and scrapped these expensive parking charges for good.”
