Wigan Council has brought in more than £120,000 in the last five years from ticketing people parked illegally outside the town's largest hospital.
The authority has collected £122,891 from tickets issued on roads outside the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary, according to a Freedom of Information request (FOI). Council officers issued 5,111 fines between the start of 2018 and the end of 2022.
In 2022 alone, the council issued £36,968 worth of fines. The data covers parking on Wigan Lane, Bellingham Drive, Clifton Crescent, Bellingham Mount, and Kingsmede.
In the last year, parking permits have been slowly re-introduced for NHS workers at trusts across the country, following the pausing of charges during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The council says parking enforcement is ‘necessary’ in order to keep the busy area clear of obstructions for emergency vehicles.
Dave Lyon, assistant director of environment and housing repairs at Wigan Council, said: “The roads around Royal Albert Edward Infirmary are among the busiest in our borough and parking enforcement is necessary to keep the area from free obstruction by ensuring all car users park in a compliant, safe and responsible way.”
The hospital trust, which runs the infirmary, says it recognises there are problems with parking outside the hospital and is looking into alternative methods for parking.
Tabitha Gardner, chief finance officer at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “WWL fully recognises the need for additional car parking for both staff and visitors. With this in mind, WWL and Wigan Council are looking at a number of alternative solutions, such as making shared use of underutilised car parking off site, and we will continue to work on a joint car parking strategy to support the needs of both organisations to the benefit of the public, our patients and our staff visiting the area.”
Freckleton Street car park, where 231 cars can currently park near to the hospital, was set to be transformed into a three-and-a-half-storey structure with 611 spaces, after Wigan Council approved the plans in 2020. Those plans have since been scrapped by the trust due to the rising costs of building materials.
Across the UK, councils have raked in as much as £3.2m in parking fines since 2018, according to an FOI submitted by Specialist car group Motorfinity - Wigan sits 7th in the top 10 list for the amount of money collected by the council.
The London Borough of Richmond has accrued the most money in fines in the UK, for five roads surrounding Kingston Hospital - £56,444 in 2022, and £324,068 in the last five years.
Bristol, Brighton, Derby and Luton councils all followed suit here too, however Hammersmith also fared highly for Charing Cross Hospital, which accumulated over £40,000 in 2022.
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