HOSPITAL workers have slammed NHS bosses over massive rise in staff parking charges.

Staff at Worthing, Shoreham and Chichester hospitals have been told they face more than 50 per cent increases in parking permit fees from next month.

An online petition against the rise already has more than 1,300 signatures.

Bosses at the Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust said the increases were to fund green projects.

A spokesman said hospital workers earning £22,128 to £28,746 who were paying £17.50 a month will now have to pay £27 – an increase of 54 per cent.

Top rates could be as much as £45 a month to park at work.

Sally Laatz, who started the online petition, wrote: “I think there isn’t a person in this country that feels the latest pay deal we received was in any way adequate and this was following a pay freeze for several years.

“Now to add insult to this our trust has decided to massively increase the cost for staff to park on site using the cloak of ‘being green’ as a reason.

“The alternative to parking on site is a park-and-ride based in Fontwell. For many of us if we used this system we would actually be travelling further every day. How green is that? Also this would add a significant amount of time to an already long and arduous day.”

Director of estates and facilities at the trust, David Jones, said: “There are nearly 10,000 people working in our three hospitals and our staff car parks have been over subscribed for many years, leaving the large majority of staff have to park off-site or travel to work by other means.

“As our trust continues to grow and the roads around our hospitals become more congested and polluted by traffic generally, we all need to take action to reduce the impact travel to and from work had on the environment.

“Our Green Travel Plan aims to do that by making it easier for staff to choose alternative means of transport. Staff working groups spent 18 months looking at all the options and suggested better facilities for walkers, cyclists and bikers, as well as discounts on public transport and new park-and-ride car parks served by a free-to-use minibus service.

“These improvements require investment, which is being partly sourced by a change to the cost of staff parking permits, which in October will go up for the first time in ten years.

“Paying more will never prove popular, but we have done our best to ensure the new charges are fair and compare favourably to other trusts.”