I HAVE worked for the health service for many years and feel that, after my experience trying to park my car recently before starting work, the public should know just how caring the management are for their employees.

As most people are aware, staff and visitors have to pay to park their cars at Blackburn's hospitals.

When I drove on the car park, there were no 'staff' parking spaces left and none on the two other car parks or local roads.

Back at the main car park, I parked in one of the many vacant 'visitor' spaces.

I took my 'staff' badge out of my car and obtained a ticket for 50p, valid for one and a half hours, with the intention of renewing it before the time had elapsed and then moving to a 'staff' space when one became available later.

At this point, the car park attendant told me to move my car or it would be clamped. I explained why I had parked there and my intentions, but to no avail.

I offered to pay the £5 fee for clamping my car but he said he would put a second clamp on if I didn't move my car immediately.

I moved my car because £10 seemed far too much to pay for the privilege of going to work.

This ridiculous charade made me late for work. Are people aware that they could be visiting the sick while staff who should be looking after them could be driving aimlessly around the streets of Blackburn trying to park their cars?

Is there any other firm which operates this way? And what other professional body would put up with this sort of treatment.

Name and address received.

FOOTNOTE: Ewen Dyda, site manage for Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust, said: "Last May, we set aside 50 extra car parking spaces at the Infirmary for patients because we had been receiving numerous complaints from people who were unable to park.

"At the end of the day, they are our patients and we owe them some obligation. But we also created 50 additional spaces for our staff and we have been trying to provide the right balance.

"The staff are 100 per cent aware that they are unable to park in the patients' area.

"This individual knew what he was doing was wrong. £10 is an excessive amount to pay to park, but he knew what he was doing from the start. We run a shuttle service between our three hospitals and he could have parked at Queen's Park Hospital and got the shuttle to the Infirmary."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.