A CASH-STRAPPED North-East hospital trust has announced plans to introduce car parking charges for Blue Badge holders.

Disabled bays outside County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) facilities are set to be brought in line with existing parking tariffs that apply to hospital car parks.

The contentious arrangement is set to be rolled out across CDDFT’s three main sites at Darlington Memorial Hospital, University Hospital of North Durham and Bishop Auckland Hospital.

Around 100 designated spaces for Blue Badge users will be affected by the decision, which CDDFT bosses insist has not been made lightly.

Alison McCree, CDDFT’s director of estates and facilities, said: “Like all NHS organisations, we are operating in a challenging financial environment and these new arrangements will support economies we have to make, but will help protect our front-line services and staffing.

“The tariffs from car parking charges are re-invested into the trust’s central fund to support services and enable improvements to patient care.

“Blue Badge holders will continue to have designated bays and we are installing new payment machines where necessary to ensure these are easily accessible for people using the bays.

“The trust does have a number of concessions in place to support different groups of patients and visitors, including those visiting long stay patients or for patients receiving cancer treatments, and these will continue.”

However, the introduction of parking charges for disabled hospital visitors has angered North-East Blue Badge holders who believe the controversial move will negatively affect those who already face transport struggles.

Gordon Pybus, chair of the Darlington Association on Disability, said: “Just saying this move will also bring us into line with other health trusts and local authorities in the region is not good enough.

“[The trust] should be looking to see how disabled people using their services will be affected and that is why it's important they involve disabled people that use their services in the impact assessment process.

“Using a Blue Badge is not just about not having to pay to park.

"Many Blue Badge users have no other way of getting about – they must use their cars even on very short journeys and that means they need to park them.

“The reason Blue Badge users didn’t used to pay was because the reason for their car trips was understood, but the reason is now conveniently forgotten by people who see another way of making money.”

Charges for Blue Badge holders are expected to be brought in during the autumn, with parking rates set between £2.50 for up to two hours and £4 for between three and 24 hours.

Darlington couple Freddie and Janet Walker, who were last night visiting a wheelchair-bound relative at Darlington Memorial Hospital, said they were shocked to hear that charges would be imposed this year.

Mr Walker said: “It’s disgusting. There’s not much parking at hospitals as it is so often we’ll be dropping my mother off who is in hospital, but we’ll have to drive around and around to find a space.

“Often there are no disabled bays free so you end up paying anyway which is on top of the blue badge which you also pay for. It’s effectively like paying twice.”

A CDDFT spokeswoman stated that more than 30 NHS organisations nationally have already introduced charges for Blue Badge holders and that the number of disabled bays on offer at its three main hospitals exceeds the national recommendation.

However, Bishop Auckland County Councillor Sam Zair, said he believes the fee introduction is a step too far.

Mr Zair said: “Obviously I am disappointed in these charges and it is clear they are to raise more funds for the NHS, but it does seem to be penalising the patients, outpatients and visitors that are sick, but now doing it for Blue Badge holders. It is step too far.

“It they want to raise more funds they want to be looking at each high-paid post and a reduction of salary would not go amiss.”