Parking tickets on streets around Dudley hospital hit 1,183

Roads around the hospital are regularly clogged with cars as people struggle to find a spot at the car park, prompting complaints from residents living near the site.

Figures released by Dudley Council show 1,183 tickets have been issued since July 2012.

The vast majority – 1,167 – were given to people caught parking illegally in Pensnett High Street.

Fourteen were handed out in Byron Street and one each in Milton Close, Abbotsford Drive and Tennyson Street.

Drivers have received fines of either £50 or £70, generating up to £82,810 for Dudley Council.

If the penalty notices are paid within 14 days then a lower fee is paid.

To help ease the problem hospital chiefs are creating 200 extra staff spaces at the rear of the site.

The biggest problem street – Pensnett High Street – falls in Councillor Judy Foster's ward.

She said she had received assurances that more frequent traffic warden patrols would be brought in on the problem street.

"It's been an ongoing problem," Councillor Foster said.

"The double yellow lines were introduced back in 2012 – we'd been championing it for a while – but people still breach them. People have been thinking they were going to get away with it by just parking there anyway.

"We definitely need to have more robust and more frequent enforcement, which we've been told is happening. But the road is congested at the best of times. The extra parking at the hospital should help, depending if staff have to pay to use it."

Double yellow lines were painted along Abbotsford Drive following a petition which was signed by every resident on the road. But a proposed one-year trial of a resident parking permit scheme was ditched after a lack of support.

People complained about the cost of having a parking permit, which was set at £100.

A recent Care Quality Commission report said car parking was causing 'much stress' to patients.