Although some people often object to having to pay for parking, there have been many angry protests from local residents concerning the introduction of parking charges at Ross-on-Wye Community Hospital.

The Ross Gazette’s post bag, albeit an electronic one, as many of the letters included this week’s edition of the newspaper arrived by email, shows that there are strong feelings about this subject.

The Gazette has received a letter from a member of staff who feels that something needed to be done to stop people using the car park if they were not attending the hospital or surgery. However other letters raise the issue that it will turn the hospital car park into a general car park for shoppers.

Many residents have said that the car park is often full, as people arrive for appointments, visit patients in the hospital, see their GP or collect prescriptions. The logistics of manning the car park, checking that people have purchased tickets is also an expense that many readers have raised.

Many readers also felt there should have been a period of consultation and MP Jesse Norman echoes this, read his comments in his column here.

A spokesperson for the Wye Valley Trust told the Ross Gazette that the Trust "has given nearly three weeks’ notice of its intention to introduce parking charges so patients and visitors are aware of the charges."

The spokesperson added: “Wye Valley NHS Trust took the decision to introduce parking charges at community hospital sites reluctantly – the option had been discussed for several years and the decision was only made after careful consideration by the Trust’s management team.”

The spokesperson explained that the parking at Hereford Hospital is managed through the Trust’s Private Finance Initiative but the Trust has sole responsibility for managing the car parks at its community hospital sites. He said although it has fought to keep car parking free at these sites for as long as possible, the ongoing maintenance cost is being footed by WVT and the Trust feels this money could be better used to pay for services.

He added: “The dire state of the Trust’s finances is well documented and the inequalities between the hospital sites across Herefordshire was increasingly being raised as an issue so the decision was made to introduce parking charges at community sites.

“WVT is at liberty to introduce the charges as it owns and manages the car parks. It is also responsible for their maintenance and upkeep. This cost is borne by the taxpayer.

“The Trust has also insisted that parking charges are in line with local public car parking charges, that payment can be made by mobile phone and that concessions, similar to those at Hereford County Hospital, are in place.

The spokesperson added that Alton Street Surgery has a number of its own parking spaces over which the Trust has no jurisdiction. He said: “It is entirely within the gift of the surgery how it manages its own parking spaces.”