Hospital trust makes extra £675,000 from parking

Campaigners have criticised a hospital trust's decision to raise parking charges after figures showed it made more than £675,000 extra last year.

United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals (ULHT) generated £1,835,894 in parking revenue in 2025/26 - up £676,442, or 58%, from the £1,159,452 collected the year before, according to figures from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

Healthwatch Lincolnshire said it was "concerned" about the higher fees for people parking at Lincoln County, Boston Pilgrim and Grantham and District hospitals.

However, ULTH said revenue from parking charges "contributes to the wider work we undertake to improve the experience of our patients, visitors and staff".

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the increased revenue last year still fell short of the trust's forecast of £2,060,879.

ULHT raised its charges in July 2025, with a one-hour ticket going up from £1 to £2, a two-hour ticket from £2 to £3, three hours from £2 to £4 and four hours from £2 to £5.

Blue badge holders, motorcyclists and cancer patients do not have to pay.

South Kesteven District Council member Charmaine Morgan, 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."

She said she had also seen complaints about how difficult it was to find a parking space and called on the hospital trust to increase capacity at its car parks.

A spokesperson for Healthwatch Lincolnshire said: "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."

They called for transparency around how the additional income from parking charges was being used.

Mike Parkhill, group chief estates and facilities officer at ULTH, said: "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."

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