Hospital staff ‘sick with worry’ over ‘ruinous’ parking tickets

STAFF at Wales’ largest hospital prosecuted for unpaid parking tickets say they are depressed, stressed and struggling to make ends meet because of the “extortionate” repayments.

In July 2017 a cohort of 79 Cardiff and Vale University Health Board employees lost a battle at Cardiff’s Civil Justice Court over 2,057 unpaid parking charge notices (PCNs) at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW).

It means they are now being forced to pay £128 per outstanding ticket – which originally cost just £1.05 – with one employee allegedly facing a bill of close to £10,000.

Last week the group managed to repay in full the £26,203 in legal fees owed to the court, but many continue to face an uphill battle to repay their individual fines.

While many of the NHS staff admit to being in the wrong when it came to their parking, many doctors, nurses and other employees have criticised the lack of staff spaces.

Some claim they did not pay the PCNs not realising the tickets were legally enforceable, while others said they were wrongly advised not to pay the fines by their legal representatives before the court hearing.

A care assistant at the University Hospital of Wales said she has to pay back £4,500 for 26 unpaid parking tickets – which equates to around a quarter of her overall salary.

“The amount of stress this has caused me has been enough to begin anti-depressants, which I still take,” said the single mum. “I am not arguing about paying to use the car park, but the costs added to a £1.05 parking ticket are totally unreasonable.

“Some of these tickets have been issued twice on one shift – which I believe is called ‘ghost ticketing’ – others are for parking without a permit, which I was then denied.

“They’re so strict that they have even given tickets when a tyre is touching the white line [of the space]. We were also told to ignore any parking tickets as they were unenforceable, which I unfortunately believed. The whole injustice of this situation and the anxiety and stress it has caused has had a huge impact.”

Another member of staff at the site in Heath, Cardiff, said she has felt “physically sick” with worry over the massive repayments.

“We have been made to feel like criminals,” she said. “All we have done is come to work to care for our patients and parked in our place of work, which does not have adequate parking. I feel physically sick when I think about the money. I’ve cried and stressed and feel so let down that we’ve been put in this position.”

The hearing at Cardiff’s Civil Justice Court specifically looked at 206 of these parking charge notices.

But it is understood that there are many thousands of additional outstanding fines.

Cardiff North MP Anna McMorrin said: “I am concerned that these fines unfairly penalise our NHS staff and a resolution must be found.”

Geoff Walsh, director of capital, estates and facilities at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said: “We are committed to working on a solution.”

Parking firm Indigo was also contacted but did not provide a comment at the time of going to print.