IPSWICH Hospital is among the top 20 money-makers from hospital car parking charges in the country, it emerged today.The Heath Road hospital collected £1,011,040 in parking fees last year, ranking it 17th in the chart of 250 hospitals which together charged more than £77million in total.

IPSWICH Hospital is among the top 20 money-makers from hospital car parking charges in the country, it emerged today.

The Heath Road hospital collected £1,011,040 in parking fees last year, ranking it 17th in the chart of 250 hospitals which together charged more than £77million in total.

The figures, published after a Freedom of Information Request, put Ipswich Hospital behind nearby Addenbrooke's in Cambridge and the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in terms of money earned by the machines, but above Northampton General and Luton & Dunstable Hospital.

Jan Rowsell, spokeswoman for the hospital, said: “We try to keep our charges in line with other hospitals in the country.

“The bigger a hospital is the more likely it is to have more visitors and staff parking their cars.

“We would love to be in a position where we didn't have to make any charges but when car parking was free there were problems with car drivers parking in emergency access roads.

“We don't get any money to pay for parking; the income we receive is to pay for healthcare.

“All of the money from charges either goes into improvements for car parking or security.”

She added that concessions were available for patients and visitors who would be parking at the hospital regularly because of extended periods of treatment and highlighted that the hospital offered interest-free loans to staff to buy bicycles to travel to work.

The news comes after ministers in Wales pledged to scrap car parking charges at hospitals from next month.

Do you think car parking at Ipswich Hospital is too expensive? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk