ANGER about 24-hour car parking charges at Petersfield Hospital is spilling over into a bigger row about parking problems in the town.

As well as a wider review of on-road parking, pedestrianising parts of the town and making some streets one-way should be considered, suggest campaigners.

Swan Street residents living opposite the hospital want the newly introduced 24-hour parking charges relaxed, and for East Hampshire District Council to resolve parking issues in the town centre.

Residents don’t have their own off-road parking, and used to park overnight free of charge in the 70-space hospital car park, when, they say, it was virtually empty.

Swan Street resident Katherine Trigg said: “We now can’t use the hospital car park at evenings and weekends, so we park in the road outside our homes. But if I go somewhere, when I return the space is gone, and often there isn’t one nearby.”

District councillor for St Peter’s Ward James Abdey has told campaigners he will be push for their case to be “prioritised accordingly.”

National Car Parks has said parking fines at the hospital won’t be issued until June.