I AM writing to express my concerns about the parking at both Burnley General and the Royal Blackburn.

I have heard from several colleagues who have been fined a minimum of £35 for having the wrong permit in their cars. But on challenging this, one of the staff has been told that Lancashire care were not informed via email and the takeover by another company and the need for a different permit.

She was then told to write to the headquarters in Birmingham within seven days; this she did but head office then told her to speak to the man in charge at Burnley.

She went to see him and he apparently informed her that she had to put it in writing to him within seven days.

She did this as a matter of urgency as requested, after seven days he had still not replied, during this time she checked with wages to find out that she was in fact, having her wages deducted for parking to the correct company.

Also at the time of seeing the man in charge he informed her there was quite a backlog regarding the permits. Hers suddenly appeared after her complaint at being fined.

One of the things she questioned is: is this sudden surge in fines due to the fact that they have lost a lot of their victims to Blackburn?

The next issue is that since Burnley nurses moved to the Royal there are now not enough parking spaces at the Royal for the nurses and they are being told that when and if they do find a space and it is not in the designated staff parking areas, then they have to pay the full day's parking fee of £3.90. This is even though they have an amount of £80 to £90 a year taken from their wages each year to park.

I think the point to be taken here is if the nurses are paying to park then they should have enough spaces for them, because if there are not enough spaces then they do not have anywhere to park so is this not tantamount to fraud, as they are actually paying for nowhere to park.

The other angle to this is that nurses are having to set off an hour early to try and get a parking space and are now being expected to park in unlit, dangerous areas.

And although they say security can walk them to their cars, there is often a waiting time of another 20 to 30 minutes before they can do this which makes an even longer day for them, and there is history of muggings and attacks at both of these hospitals.

Personally, I think the nurses should stop paying altogether as they are only being used as a captive market for the parking companies and not getting the services they are paying for. Maybe they should contact their unions to challenge this through their legal departments as I doubt that this can be legal. Also, if nurses and other staff at Burnley General got free parking, I may be able to park on my street as they all use this, rather than pay.

ROY WALLBANK, Killington Street, Burnley.