VISITORS and patients either over-staying or not paying for parking at Airedale Hospital in Steeton have been getting away with it because no penalties have been issued since 2015.

Work has now started on installing a £200,000 pay-as-you-go barrier system which should be finished by March and includes a clear separation of staff and visitor parking, barrier controls and a pay-on-exit scheme which hospital bosses hope will make it easier to find a space and make charges fairer, particularly for people who are only visiting for a short time.

Airedale NHS Foundation Trust has not increased its patient car park prices since 2007.

Its income from patient car parks in 2015-16 was £534,470 compared to £578,997 in the previous 12 months and £535,968 in 2013-2014.

It does not charge people with disabilities for parking.

The hospital's fees for Monday to Sunday are two hours for £2.50, four hours for £3 and £3.50 for up to 24 hours.

In 2015, the Trust transferred parking management from an external company to managing it in-house and since it has not been issuing parking charge notices but a spokesman said it will be reintroducing penalties from April this year.

The Trust is also now reviewing its parking charges and plans to make all the spaces outside Outpatients disabled parking, working with Transdev to look at increasing the frequency of buses to the hospital site.

The new parking barrier scheme is funded out of the Trust's capital budget so it will not use up funds for patient services.

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