By Ursula Duddy
A public consultation will take place on proposals to increase car parking charges at Altnagelvin Hospital, the Derry News has learned.
The move was approved at a meeting of the Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) Board last week.
The move to raise the car parking charges came last month just days after it emerged that the Trust had made over half a million pounds from its car park over the past two years.
The figures, which were obtained through a Freedom of Information request lodged by the Belfast Telegraph showed that Altnagelvin Hospital's car parks brought in £261,980 over the 2015/16 period, with £283,382 brought in over the 2016/17 financial year – a total of £545,362 over two years.
In November, the car parking rates raised temporarily.
Ms Teresa Molloy, Director of Performance and Service Improvement with the Western Trust, said that the proposal was no ‘particularly controversial’.
“I am seeking the Trust Board’s approval to proceed with a formal consultation and a targeted consultation for 14 weeks to permanently increase the car parking charge rates on the three hospital sites,” she said.
“We have sought agreement from the Health and Social Care Board to proceed with this as a proposal that we do not view to be particularly controversial and they have agreed with that.
“We did temporarily make a change to the car parking rates as part of the outworkings of the low impact proposals that came out of our savings plan consultation.
“Essentially this consultation would propose that we make that change permanent, there will not be any further changes, and we would rather make that change permanent.”
Ms Molloy pointed out that more than 70 per cent of the available parking was already free.
“The Trust Board has always had a policy that a minimum of 70 per cent of our car parking spaces would be free and we are sitting well above the 70 per cent on our three hospital sites at the minute,” she said.
Ms Molloy said that a report on the proposal gives consultees information on ‘how car parks are currently used’ and on the nature of use for up to two hours and ‘how few actually use the car parks for longer periods of time’.
She added: “Obviously we are doing this in line with the department’s processes, we are setting car parking prices and that’s also emphasised in the document.
“The document does provide information, how to access concessionary parking and who would have availability of free car parking with a question and answer section for people to ask questions.”
The public consultation was approved but a date for its implementation has yet to be announced.
If you have a story or want to send a photo or video to us please contact the Derry Now editorial team on 028 7129 6600 for Derry City stories Or 028 7774 3970 for County Derry stories. Or you can email gareth@derrynews.net at any time.