THE profit from Southend Hospital's car park has nosedived from £363,437 in 2004/05 to just over £2,000 last year.

The car park generated £533,300 over the past financial year, but was left with £2,200 after costs.

Outgoings were for the car park manager, attendants and parking enforcement.

The hospital said profit had gone down because of all the work which had been carried out on the car park.

Barriers were put in at the entrance to the main hospital car park and a series of improvements have been carried out, the hospital said.

The hospital has 408 paid for spaces of which 48 are reserved for blue badge holders.

It charges £2 for a stay of up to two hours, £2.50 for between two and four hours, and £4 for any stay longer than four hours, and also charges disabled visitors.

Nicky McLean, Southend Hospital's security access manager, said: "Continuing to charge for car parking is essential as we need to ensure money is not diverted from our prime purpose, which is to provide clinical care to our patients.

"Any surplus generated from car parking income would be reinvested into the hospital's travel plan.

"This includes the heavily-discounted staff public transport initiative that not only relieves pressure on the hospital's car park, but is environmentally friendly as it helps reduce the number of cars on the road."