Campaigners criticise hospital trust's decision to increase parking charges after it made more than £670,000 extra last year

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed that United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals (ULHT) banked an extra £676,442 in 2025/26 from car park fees when compared to the previous year, following an increase to its charges.

In total, bosses raked in £1,835,894 in parking revenue in 2025/26 – a 58 per cent jump from £1,159,452 the year before. However, this means it fell short of its forecast, which was to make £2,060,879.

This revenue covers the money generated by car park changes at Lincoln County Hospital, Boston Pilgrim Hospital and Grantham and District Hospital.

Lincoln patients are now paying almost £1 million a year, while Grantham car parking fees jumped 67 per cent to top a quarter of a million pounds. Takings from Boston rose more than £200,000.

Coun Charmaine Morgan (Independent – Grantham St Vincents), who also sits on Lincolnshire County Council’s health scrutiny committee, was critical of the figures.

She said: “This increase is extraordinarily high – far more than inflation. It seems the hospital trust is capitalising on patient need to use cars to access hospital services and treating the car parks as an income source.

“This is particularly punitive in our rural county where it is known there is poor alternative public transport available.

“Not only are these charges targeting patients and their visitors, but I have also seen complaints regarding how difficult it is to park at the hospitals.”

Coun Morgan also called on the hospital trust to increase the number of spaces in its car parks.

She added: “Significantly more investment in the provision of parking spaces is needed. When the trust first introduced charges they argued funds would be used to improve the car parks.

“Whilst some improvements were made initially, the rising number of patients has meant parking provision is now inadequate to meet patient needs.

“Investment has been made in improving the technology to get parking fees from car park users but has adequate investment been made in increasing overall parking capacity?”

She also fears that long waiting times at the A&E departments are likely to make these costs worse for patients and add to other issues such as fuel prices.

She added: “The hospital trust should state where the funding raised is specifically going and their response is vague regarding this point.

“Even if it were all spent on the car parks there is the ethical dilemma as to whether vulnerable sick patients should be paying parking fees they may be unable to afford.

“As a public service our NHS should be funded by those able to pay tax and not from these direct parking fees which remain the same regardless of income.”

The hospital trust raised parking charges in July last year.

The price of parking for one hour rose from £1 to £2 and parking for two hours increased from £2 to £3.

The charge for parking for three hours doubled from £2 to £4 and parking for up to four hours rose from £2 to £5.

Blue badge holders, motorcyclists and cancer patients remain able to park for free.

ULTH previously said the increased charges would allow it to improve car parking across its hospitals and provide dedicated spaces for patients and visitors.

A spokesperson for Healthwatch Lincolnshire warned that the increased parking charges could create additional barriers for patients.

The spokesperson added: “Healthwatch Lincolnshire is aware of concerns raised by local people about hospital car parking charges and the additional cost this can create for patients, visitors and carers, particularly for those who need to attend hospital regularly.

“Parking can be an important part of people’s ability to access health services, so we are concerned about any changes that may create an additional barrier for people already facing the costs associated with illness, treatment or caring responsibilities.

“In terms of how the additional income from parking charges is being used, we would expect there to be transparency around this and for local people to be able to understand how any income generated benefits patients and improves their experience of accessing hospital services.”

Responding to these concerns, Mike Parkhill, group chief estates and facilities officer at ULTH, said: “Revenue generated through car parking charges at our hospitals is retained by the trust and contributes to the wider work we undertake to improve the experience of our patients, visitors and staff.

“This includes supporting programmes and initiatives that help create better environments, improve services and make a positive difference to the people who use and work in our hospitals and community services.

“Over the last three years we have made significant investment in our car parks including increasing car parking capacity across all sites, surface improvements and creating additional disabled parking and parent and child parking.

“Our priority remains providing high-quality care for our communities while making the best possible use of the resources available to us.”