Plans to increase charging at hospital car parks in East Sussex have been condemned.

Hospital bosses are planning to hike charges at the Eastbourne District General Hospital and the Conquest Hospital in Hastings.

At the DGH they would rise from £1.20 a day to £3, while at the Conquest the rise would be from £1 to £3 a day.

The proposal is one of several under consideration by East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs both sites.

Bosses stress that charges would be ploughed back into patient services and charges at both sites have remained stagnate since 2000.

However, Hastings and Rother Community Health Council (CHC) has expressed outrage at the proposal.

Officials say the plans coincide with the NHS receiving millions of extra pounds in Government cash and National Insurance contributions.

Group chairman Tony Moore has asked why no public consultation had been carried out when developing the proposals.

The CHC has now written to trust chief executive Annette Sergeant opposing any increase in charges.

Mr Moore said any rise would hit low-income families hard, particularly in deprived Hastings and St Leonards.

Discussion of the increased car parking charges is due at the trust's next board meeting, at the DGH on Wednesday at 2pm.