HEALTH bosses are planning a car parking 'double whammy' at Blackburn's Queens Park Hospital.

The current charge for visitors of 70p for up to 12 hours parking will rise to £1 in December .

It will then go up on a sliding scale until the £86 million 'superhospital' is finished at the Haslingden Road site in 2005, when parking for more than six hours will cost £3.20.

The Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Healthcare Trust board was due to agree the new rates today.

Two months ago it approved controversial plans to increase staff parking charges year-on-year from the current £1.30 a week up to £2.22 by 2005.

Around 2,000 workers have already written to hospital chiefs to complain.

Union officials are considering asking staff if they would like to withdraw payment, which is deducted direct from their wages. They called the increases 'an extra levy on staff'.

The Trust's business plan involves using money from car parking and other services to offset the cost of the present building work.

Extra income will help fund 1,100 extra parking spaces taking the total to around 2,000, and other security measures.

Trust operations director John Dell said: "The costs associated with providing the additional car parking spaces are in the region of £356,000 a year, which includes their construction, fencing, lighting and significant improvements to the security provision including CCTV.

"The proposed increased charges for visitors and staff will be used to fund this projected increase in cost to provide the much-needed car parks."

The money, he said, would also go towards implementing a green travel plan at the hospital to encourage staff and visitors to use alternative transport.

Health watchdog Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Community Health Council has not formally discussed the visitor charges yet, but Chief Officer Nigel Robinson said members were not opposed to it.