AN ANGRY pensioner has hit out at the lack of parking space at Princess Alexandra Hospital.

George Money, 77, from Woodcroft, Harlow, is appalled that limited hospital parking areas do not cater for the vast numbers of patients visiting the site.

His wife Patricia, an Alzheimers sufferer and a victim of two strokes, is wheelchair-bound, and in recent years, Mr Money had no other option but to drive her to the hospital.

He said: "Finding somewhere to park in the hospital grounds has, for both of us, been a nightmare.

"It can take up to ten minutes to find a space and then over 15 minutes to push Patricia's wheelchair to the outpatients clinic."

Mr Money is outraged that a hospital catering for patients from Epping, Harlow and Bishop's Stortford, can expand its departments but not its parking facilities.

And he slammed suggestions made by Harlow Council that patients should stop using their cars to travel to the hospital.

He said: "Like it or not, the car is the only way many people can get to the hospital and it is necessary to ensure that there are adequate and safe parking facilities for staff, out-patients and visitors."

Princess Alexandra Hospital recently failed in its appeal against Harlow Council's refusal to extend parking provisions at the rear of Parndon Hall.

The council threw out the appeal because residents living near Parndon Hall had fiercely opposed parking expansion plans.

A spokesman from Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust said attempts to find extra parking space had reached a "dead end" but said hospital parking fees had helped to improve existing provisions.

He said: "We recognise that parking is a problem for people visiting the hospital and we apologise to people who really need to use their cars.

"But there are a lot of patients who do not need to drive to the hospital and some people are abusing the use of the car park. We would support the council in encouraging people not to use their cars."

He explained that more buses now travelled onto hospital grounds, but added that the residents' refusal of car park developments at Parndon Hall were a defeat for those people who used the hospital site.

A Harlow Council spokewoman said: "We refused car parking expansion at Parndon Hall because public consultation revealed there would be a great loss of amenity to residents."

She said the council was trying to encourage residents to leave their cars at home and use alternative transport to ease parking congestion at the hospital and to protect the environment.

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