PATIENTS and visitors to Basildon Hospital will now be charged more for parking in the car park.

The hospital has been undertaking an improvement of its car parks in the hope of increasing car sharing, improving visitor experience by ensuring there are enough spaces and promoting public transport.

The hospital improvements have also included new barriers and road layouts but parking charges will increase from August 1.

The current charges are £3 for up to eight hours, £6 for up to 12 hours and £10 for longer periods.

Although visitors will still be able to park for up to 30 minutes for free, once the charges are increased parking for up to two hours will cost £3, up to five hours will cost £5, up to six hours £6 and more than six hours £10.

Parking for blue badge permit holders will remain free of charge.

A hospital spokesman said: “This is part of a wider programme to improve car parking across all of our sites.

“We have recently introduced new barriers which work on number plate recognition to speed up access to, and exit from, our car parks.

“Alongside recent changes to the road layout, these upgrades have made it much easier to exit the hospital site, which is especially important at extremely busy times.

“The new barriers will be more reliable and the replacement pay machines will offer more payment options including paying by credit/debit card.

“Concessionary parking rates are available for those who need to visit our hospitals regularly and frequently.”