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Simon Burns MP raises Mid Essex Car Park charges again with minister of health in House of Commons

30 November 2009

Commenting on his recent Parliamentary Questions, Simon Burns MP said:

"Last month at Health Questions the minister told me that Health Trusts should not use car parking charges to reduce the deficits of Health Trusts; however, the chief executive of the Mid Essex Hospital Trust wrote to me on 25th October and confirmed that as from 1st February 2007 the car parking charging regime at the Trust had been used to help pay off the deficit.

"As a result of this, I asked the health minister yesterday what has is prepared to do to stop this, as it was directly contrary to what he said Trusts should be doing.

"Unfortunately, he totally refused to answer that part of the question and simply went on a political rant that got us no further forward. To pin the minister down on this, because I want a resolution to the problem, I have tabled the attached Parliamentary Written Question.

"I am also writing to the chief executive of the Trust because never before has the question of subsidies been raised on this issue, and if the Trust are subsidising the car parking, how and why are they also using the increased charges to help pay off the deficit."