{"id":811470,"date":"2026-10-23T13:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T13:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/811470\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T13:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T13:48:13","slug":"obscene-3m-parking-bill-for-coventry-and-rugby-hospital-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/811470\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Obscene’ \u00a33m parking bill for Coventry and Rugby hospital staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hospital parking fees totalled more than \u00a315m last year for NHS<\/a> workers across the Midlands, according to new figures. University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust<\/a> collected \u00a33.8m across its Coventry<\/a> and Rugby<\/a> sites.<\/p>\n

Figures from the 2025\/26 Estates Return Information Collection (ERIC) show healthcare staff across the Midlands paid \u00a315.6m for parking. University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust<\/a>, which operates UHCW and Hospital of St Cross in Rugby<\/a>, topped the regional list with \u00a33.8m.<\/p>\n

Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust followed with \u00a32.8m, while Leicester University Hospital brought in \u00a31.8m. GMB branded the fees ‘utterly obscene’ and called for them to be scrapped.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Takeaway with one-star hygiene rating needs ‘major improvements’<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Coventry Market traders reveal the reality of empty days and second jobs saying ‘it stinks’<\/a><\/p>\n

Rachel Harrison, GMB National Secretary, said: \u201cIt is utterly obscene we are still having this debate in 2026. On what planet is it a good idea to charge health workers just for going to work?<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite finally getting a pay rise under Labour<\/a>, NHS<\/a> workers are underpaid and massively overstretched. Staff need our help and support, not having pounds pinched out of their pocket just for trying to do their job.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust<\/a> said: \u201cA large proportion of our car parks form part of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract, and, as a result, we generate minimal car park revenue directly from staff, patients or visitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of our staff can reduce the cost of their parking permit through a salary sacrifice scheme. We also give those on the lowest pay band who are not eligible for salary sacrifice an automatic 25 per cent discount.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoney generated goes towards essential running costs of the car parks and the surrounding areas, including maintenance, security, lighting, improvements and increased capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Join CoventryLive<\/a> on WhatsApp<\/a> for the latest headlines and breaking news from across Coventry<\/a>. Sign up HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hospital parking fees totalled more than \u00a315m last year for NHS workers across the Midlands, according to new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[2598,102,2960,2053,104,5903,127765,56,54,55,136357,136356,3681],"class_list":["post-811470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-coventry","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-labour-party","tag-nhs","tag-rugby","tag-uhcw-nhs-trust","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-university-hospital-coventry","tag-university-hospitals-coventry-and-warwickshire-nhs-trust","tag-warwickshire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}