Scarborough Hospital Car Park Charging Problems

Thursday, 14 September 2023 11:17

By Matthew Pells

Some visitors to Scarborough Hospital have reported being overcharged for car parking.

The Hospital trust installed a new ANPR based car parking system earlier this year. It uses cameras to recognise car registration plates when they enter and leave the hospital car park and charge drivers for the time they have used.

Some visitors reported over the weekend that they had been over charged by the system. One visitor said:

"On two occasions in last couple of days my entry time has shown on the receipt wrong, and it’s actually been the exit time from my visit earlier in the afternoon

I contacted hospital and they apologised and said they would refund me, but it’s happened again and obviously their system isn’t working correctly."

A spokesperson for the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said:

“The installation of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology at Scarborough Hospital is making parking much quicker and simpler for the majority of staff and patients.

“ANPR cameras works by reading a vehicle’s number plate on arrival and exit of the car park. As with any ANPR system, we are aware of occasional isolated incidents when people are charged incorrectly, which can be due to dirty or non-compliant number plates for instance, when the camera has been unable to read the plate. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and any overpayment is refunded in full.”

In an email to This is the Coast the trust suggested that the issue was not ongoing, however there have been further reports of overcharging this week. One hospital visitor we contacted said they were charged £7.20 for a 1 hour 20 minute visit which should have been £2.90 and on the previous day they were charged £8.65 for 90 minute stay.

According to the hospitals website the standard charges for the hospital car park are