Parking cost is too much

SIR - As I am sure you know, a restricted parking zone has been painted outside the Lister hospital and surrounding residential areas causing great detriment to the staff, students and relatives of the hospital.

As a student nurse with an income of £510.10 per month I would like to ask what it is the trust proposes we do with our cars when there is a charge at a ridiculous £6 per day to use the car parks. We are unable to get parking permits as we are not permanent members of staff and it is unreasonable to expect us to spend on average £120 of our bursaries simply on parking alone, there are students who are single parents and I admire them for how well they cope with such little money as it is.

This then raises the question of what is essentially a female dominated profession walking around the streets of Stevenage late at night and early in the morning. Our shifts begin at 7.30am and end at 8pm.

I am sure you are now thinking why can't public transport be used. Well I live in Shenley, a friend of mine lives in Luton and even students living nearby would struggle to make their shifts on time using the services in place and would need to be up around an hour earlier in order to use public transport therefore decreasing concentration and, essentially, patient care throughout the day.

Student nurses work very hard during their placements and contribute well towards the teams on each ward, we are essentially in most cases used as staff due to a decrease in the number of posts available or 'frozen' and I am very upset that as a thank you for all our hard work we can no longer park our cars nearby and in essence our safety has been jeopardised.

Our university operates a system where students can contact each other over the internet, one comment was posted about this on a discussion page and within two days 21 people had replied all showing their concern and stress over the £30 parking fines they had received, and the bad attitude of some staff members and parking attendants at the site.

A while ago I parked in the residential area up the road and a woman came out and had a go at me. When I told her I had no choice she said ''Well speak to your boss'', but we do not have a boss at the hospital!

It would seem that the decision to put these restrictions in place had no consultation on the aftermath and that the staff, the people at the heart of every patient that brings the money to the Trust were not considered.

I wonder if the chief executive of the East and North Herts Trust will be giving up his reserved space anytime soon?

REBECCA BOURNE

Student Nurse UH

Shenley