Parking charges for 14,000 staff at Wolverhampton and Walsall hospitals now suspended until new year
Controversial parking charges for staff at two major West Midlands hospitals have been suspended until the new year following protests.
The charges, which would have seen hospital workers at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital and Walsall's Manor Hospital pay up to £360 a year, were due to have come into effect at the start of this month.
But the The Royal Wolverhampton and Walsall Healthcare NHS trusts have now agreed to delay the charges for further consultation.
Last week about 40 staff and supporters took part in a demonstration outside the Manor Hospital demanding the charges be dropped. They also gathered a 30-page petition.
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Joe Chadwick-Bell, chief executive of the two trusts, said the senior team had received several emails and messages from staff, unhappy at the way the charges were implemented.
She said the trust would be suspending the charges until the new year to allow time for a review, but said free parking would still have to come to an end.
Mrs Chadwick-Bell said government funding, which had covered the cost of the parking, had now come to an end.
