HEALTH chief Barbara North has denied Andover War Memorial Hospital is the 'milch cow' of Winchester as she defended the introduction of car parking charges.

She was responding to a question from Mr John Barrell at Andover Councillors' Forum on Monday.

He wanted to know whether visitors to long-term patients in Andover hospital would have to pay the same as everyone else.

He said: "For them to pay considerable sums in parking charges every time they visit seems to be unfair to say the least. Is Winchester hospital the milch cow of Winchester hospital?"

Mrs North, who is chairman of Winch-ester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust, said the new nursing home run by Hampshire County Council would have free dedicated spaces.

Parking spaces immediately outside the Countess of Brecknock's Hospice were for hospital volunteers and were also free.

But there was also a sliding scale of reduced charges to cater for those visitors seeing long-term patients.

As for the 'milch cow' jibe, she said the decision to introduce car parking charges at Andover hospital was 'incredibly difficult'.

She added: "The trust looks after Andover hospital and at the start of the year we had a £13 million deficit." It should be £7.5 million by the end of the year.

"We now have a wonderful new car park at Andover which we paid £50,000 towards," said Mrs North. For the full story see Friday's Andover Advertiser