CAR parking charges are to be introduced at Andover War Memorial Hospital - but the fee will be half that originally proposed for the first year.

After the first year charges will be doubled to bring them into line with those charged by the Royal Hampshire County Hospital (RHCH).

The decision made at Wednesday's meeting of Winchester and Eastleigh's NHS Trust board has triggered a threat of traffic chaos in surrounding streets with staff saying they will not park in the hospital car park.

There's likely to be chaos on the site too because the Health Centre car park is exempt from the charges following a plea from the GPs.

It was in July that the NHS Trust announced charges would be introduced on 1 October - to coincide with an increase in charges at Winchester.

But after a storm of protest and a plea from Test Valley Borough Council to make the patients' and visitors' parking rates match Andover public car park charges, proposed hospital fees have been halved and will now be introduced from 1 January next year.

Before the board came to its decision Michael Leggatt, head of hotels and general services for the trust, said: "If we don't introduce charges then there is a much greater risk of something happening on site. People are parking on verges and obstructing accesses for emergency vehicles."

When the proposal to introduce car parking charges was first announced staff voiced their objections.

They pointed out they had to drive to work as their alternative travel options were hampered by poor public transport.

For the full story see Friday's Andover Advertiser.