Battle begins to keep new Sick Kids parking fees down

A CAMPAIGN is under way to keep parking charges low when Edinburgh's Royal Hospital for Sick Children moves to Little France.

The hospital is expected to leave its existing Victorian base in Sciennes Road for a purpose-built home beside the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary within six years.

But campaigners are already demanding there is no repeat of the controversial decision to charge patients and visitors £10 a day to park at the ERI.

Lib Dem politicians in the south of the city are spearheading the protest. They have launched a petition and will deliver 36,000 leaflets to residents in January.

They are demanding a promise from NHS Lothian that there will be no attempt to collect more revenue than the council already brings in from pay-and-display charges on roads near Sciennes.

They also insist that families should be able to park for free at evenings and during the night.

Health chiefs today said the new site will offer "huge improvements" for motorists, and discussions are still to take place on how much it will cost to park there.

While welcoming the decision to build a new hospital, South Edinburgh MSP Mike Pringle said: "It would be wrong to charge parents sitting by the bedside of sick children to park overnight and at weekends and the NHS must accept that principle for the new hospital."

The £10 parking fee proved controversial when the new ERI opened in 2002, with charges set as part of the private finance deal under which the hospital was built. Patients and their families complained of racking up massive parking fees.

Last month it was announced that the charge is to be cut to £7 as part of a wide-ranging deal struck between hospital bosses and Consort, the private firm which built the infirmary.

Charges for shorter stays, which start at £1.20 an hour and operate 24 hours a day, will remain unchanged - much higher than the 70p-per-hour cost of parking on Hatton Place, near the existing Sick Kids Hospital, payable between 8.30am and 5.30pm.

Newington Lib Dem councillor Fred Mackintosh said: "Locally, Labour blames the last Tory government for the high parking charges at the Royal Infirmary, but Tony Blair's Labour government approved the deal to build the hospital and the price for parking in 1998. We don't want NHS Lothian to make the same mistakes about parking charges."

A recent public consultation on NHS Lothian's proposals to move the hospital to Little France attracted 100 responses, with only two disagreeing. The Scottish Executive has to approve the plans before building work can begin, but that is expected to be a formality given the strong support.

John Jack, director of facilities for NHS Lothian, said: "The relocation of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children to Little France will offer huge improvements in terms of car parking availability, which has been a key priority for NHS Lothian. However, at this early stage there are many other issues still to discuss and this includes charging for car parking."