Car parking charges are set to rise at a hospital to help claw back a multi-million-pound deficit.

Airedale NHS Trust estimates the hike to staff and visitors to Airedale Hospital at Steeton near Keighley will bring in £90,000. It will be pumped into a fund being drawn up to reduce the £3million deficit the trust is facing by the end of this financial year.

New chief executive Adam Cairns has drawn up a ground-breaking management structure entitled The Way Ahead, designed to bring the trust back on an even keel in the next two years.

He believes the new parking charges will help, a meeting of the trust board was told yesterday.

Mr Cairns said the increase would not penalise patients and families who had to use the hospital regularly. "There are patients attending the acute services and regular people coming for treatment and it is not our intention to impose charges on those people of that kind," he said. "We are really talking about people who pay periodic visits. The impact on those will be small."

He said visitors should be made more aware of parking concessions available.

Doug Farrow, director of planning and performance, said a two-year contract had been agreed with the car park managers, CP Plus. It involves 24 CCTV monitoring and additional staff in the Accident and Emergency department.

He said management had agreed not to impose significantly-higher charges on staff.

The increases would make Airedale parking costs broadly comparable with other hospitals in the district.

The new pay-and-display charges will be implemented from May 2006.

Parking for the general public for the first two hours will increase from £1 to £2 and from £1.20 to £2.50 for two to four hours. People staying more than four hours will pay £3 an increase of £1.20.

Staff charges will be £64 a year for a full time permit - at present £60. A part-time permit will increase from £30 to £32 and a barrier permit will cost £128 and increase of £8.

l The trust is to employ a third consultant cardiologist as part of a plan to maintain the hospital's overburdened "blue ribbon" service.