THE cost of parking at Warrington Hospital has rocketed by 50 per cent.

And while hospital chiefs say the extra cash will pay for maintenance of the car park, the move has proved unpopular among many visitors.

Dawn Brown, from Lymm, said: "When my mother was admitted to hospital I arrived in a panic and the last thing I wanted to think about was scraping around for change to put in a pay and display machine.

"People going to a hospital generally have enough to worry about without car park charges and what will happen if they don't pay."

Mike Atkinson, head of hotel services at the hospital, said: "The rise is necessary for the trust to meet the increasing costs of running and maintaining its car parks. This ensures that money for clinical services is not being used to subsidise parking facilities.

"Even with this increase, parking at both sites remains lower than most hospitals in the north west."

The increase in charges, the first in three years, will not only affect patients and visitors to the hospital, but also residents of nearby streets who have long campaigned against their cars parking outside their homes.

Karl Ciz, who lives in Wellfield Street, said: "It's already got to the point where we can't park our own cars outside our homes. This is purely a money-making exercise for the hospital and yet another example of bosses not listening to residents."

Patients and visitors will be required to pay £1.50 to park their cars at the hospital for up to three hours, an increase of 50p.

For a stay longer than three hours the price will rise by 40p from £1.60 to £2.

For stays between 6pm and 7pm visitors will pay £1.50 instead of £1.

Blue badge holders will continue to park for free and concessions are still available for regular visitors.

Notices have been displayed at both sites notifying patients and visitors of the price changes.

Have your say on the increase in parking charges, log on to warringtonguardian.co.uk