5 February 2025

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) is introducing changes to car parking charges for patients and visitors from Monday 7 April 2025.

The changes are being brought in to ensure the Trust can cover the many costs associated with running and maintaining the car parks at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and William Farr House.

This is the first increase in charges for patients and visitors since 2021 and is due to rising costs, essential upgrades and investment in parking alternatives, such as a Park & Ride to create more capacity.

Over the past 12 months, the Trust has been working to improve car parking for everyone with various measures:

  • Improving line painting and maximising unused land to create new spaces
  • Investing in staff Park & Ride schemes to release car parking spaces for people who need them most
  • New cameras to give the Trust more data on car parking usage to help manage demand
  • New parking machines to make payments easier for patients and visitors.

These improvements are being phased in across both hospital sites and William Farr House over the coming months. The Trust also has plans to increase the number of electric car points and cycling facilities over the coming years, as part of its commitment to reducing its carbon footprint.

The new costs from Monday 7 April will be as follows:

Up to 20 mins Free

Up to 1 hour £4.00

Up to 2 hours £5.50

Up to 3 hours £6.50

Up to 4 hours £7.50

24 hours £9.50

Concessions currently in place for some patients and their relatives will remain and are unaffected by the changes. Those include blue badge holders, patients receiving renal dialysis or cancer treatment, those visiting the hospital for issues connected to bereavement, parents of sick children staying overnight and frequent attenders.

All the money from parking is used to pay for the maintenance of the car parks, off-site car parking and the Park & Ride service. The Trust has made a commitment that any surplus will be reinvested into further easing car parking and frontline services.

Paula Gardner, Interim Chief Nursing Officer at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “We have not taken this decision to increase parking charges lightly. We remain committed to providing the best experience for our patients and visitors. Over the past year we have been working to improve car parking on both hospital sites and are making steady progress. We know parking remains a challenge and finding a space is frustrating when you have an appointment or are visiting a loved one.

“The Trust is continuing to invest in new schemes that will improve parking for everyone, including trialling a new patient Park & Ride at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. We will continue to listen to feedback from our patients, visitors and staff to improve parking for everyone and would like to thank people for their support and understanding.”

GroupNexus, which is working in partnership with the Trust, said: “We are happy to work with SaTH to provide convenient parking solutions for patients, visitors and staff.”

The Trust is currently running a free trial for a Park & Ride service for patients and visitors to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. The first patients have already benefitted from the service, which started on Monday 27 January and it is hoped the scheme will be a success.

The service for patients runs from Oxon Park & Ride at the hospital between 10am and 3pm.

For more information on parking charges and the Park & Ride service at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital visit: www.sath.nhs.uk/patients-visitors/getting-to-us/