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Liberal Democrats are deeply concerned by Stepping Hill Hospital plans for huge increases to car park fees for patients and visitors. These changes have been quietly slipped out on the hospital’s website and show as taking effect from the 1st September.

Patients parking up to 2 hours will pay £3.50 – a 40% hike. Those who park for more than 2 hours will pay 33% more than at present. The price for parking for more than 4 hours will increase to £8.

Cllr Lisa Smart, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for Hazel Grove and Councillor for Bredbury Green and Romiley said: “The NHS should be free at the point of delivery. We acknowledge that the hospital is facing a financial crisis but this is asking patients and visitors to plug the gap in NHS funding. The NHS should be properly funded from general taxation, reflecting the increasing costs and demand they face. The increase will mean Stepping Hill Hospital will have one of the highest hospital parking fees across Greater Manchester.”

Cllr Mark Weldon, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Stepping Hill said: “Residents who live near the hospital already suffer from their roads being parked up by hospital staff and visitors. These price hikes, along with higher staff parking charges, will make the situation even worse. It is disappointing that the hospital didn’t mention any of these increases at the recent public meeting about parking I organised with local residents.”

Details of the increases to parking charges can be found on the Stockport NHS Foundation Trust website here.

Stockport Liberal Democrats have called for a joint campaign with people from all parties and none to oppose the Conservative cuts that have led to job losses and a ward closure at Stepping Hill hospital.

You can join our campaign and sign the petition here.

“At the last election the Conservatives promised billions of pounds more for our NHS,” said Cllr Lisa Smart, Hazel Grove Parliamentary Spokesperson. “We now know that Stepping Hill is having to close a ward, lose over 400 staff, sell off part of their site and make other savings to balance the books. And that’s just for this year – more cuts may be needed next year.”

“It is vital that we have a properly funded health service,” said Cllr Mark Hunter, Parliamentary Spokesperson for Cheadle.  “Within the last few days we have held a top-level meeting with the hospital, and we will work with people from all parties and none to save Stepping Hill.”

Refuting Tory and Labour claims of a leak and breach of confidentiality, Lib Dem leader Iain Roberts said “Along with other parties, I received an email from the hospital via council officers on Wednesday 27th July. The email was not marked as confidential. There was nothing suggesting that it was confidential. It stated that staff at Stepping Hill had already been informed of the proposed cuts. I make no apology for fighting to save our hospital and for informing the public of plans to close an entire ward at less than two days notice. It is astonishing that the Labour and Conservative parties think that big cuts to our hospital matter less than keeping those cuts a secret.”

Lib Dems launch SOS Stepping Hill campaign.

Stockport Liberal Democrats have reacted with shock and anger at news that Stepping Hill hospital is to slash hundreds of jobs and close a whole ward in an attempt to balance the books.

Stepping Hill hospital has admitted it has a deficit of over £40 million and every minute of every day it is losing £75.

Our SOS Stepping Hill Campaign calls on the Conservative government to properly fund the hospital – you can sign our petition here.

To deal with this, the hospital has briefed staff on a whole series of cuts. These include:

A campaign against big increases to the cost of staff parking permits at Stepping Hill hospital has gathered more than 500 signatures in just a few days.

The campaign by Stockport Liberal Democrats began after information was received from a member of staff that the hospital were planning to triple staff parking fees. The hospital initially declined to comment, but later said that the proposal was to nearly double the cost of parking.

“Thank you to everyone who has supported our campaign so far,” said Mark Weldon, Lib Dem councillor for Stepping Hill. “Getting 500 signatures so quickly is amazing. Our next target is to get 1,000 and send a strong message to hospital management. We all know the Government is under-funding our NHS, but it should not be up to hospital staff to fund that gap by paying more for parking at work. Hospital management needs to think again.”

“Hospital staff who can’t afford the higher fees will end up parking on local residential roads, already crammed with cars,” added Jon Twigge, Lib Dem councillor for Hazel Grove. “That’s unfair on residents. We are calling for Stepping Hill hospital to scrap this proposal and instead work with us and the Council to find better alternatives. The Lib Dems will continue to campaign for fair NHS funding from the Government.”

The Liberal Democrat campaign has attracted 500 signatures in less than five days. People can sign the petition at https://goo.gl/nu6hL3

Having suffered years of underfunding, Stockport Lib Dems are concerned at the announcement this week that the Conservative government’s plan to introduce a new funding formula for schools has been delayed for yet another year, to 2018/19.

Speaking about the delay, Cllr Mark Weldon, Lib Dem spokesperson for Education, said: “The current formula massively disadvantages school children in Stockport and has done so for many years. Across the country the funding gap between the best and worst funded schools was almost £2m. Some schools get as much as £6300 per pupil whilst others get as little as £4200.

“In his announcement of this policy during his Autumn budget statement last year, George Osborne said there would be winners and losers when a fairer formula is announced. Now the government is saying that no school will lose funding. Schools need to know what funding is available to them so that they can plan for the future of our education system.”

Cllr Lisa Smart, Lib Dem spokesperson for Reform and Governance, said: “The Conservatives have been campaigning on this issue locally and making much of the unfairness of the current system. Now they announce that they will be continuing the unfair system for yet another year whilst also cutting budgets in real terms. Per-pupil funding will be frozen for 2017/18 and schools will have extra costs to meet, such as higher pensions contributions for staff.

“This uncertainty and this continued unfairness is simply not acceptable. We call on the government to get on with implementing a fair system which will enable our schools to deliver better outcomes for children across Stockport.”

Stockport Lib Dems have congratulated the Cheadle Muslim Association on a successful open day.

“The Cheadle Muslim Association have opened their doors to the whole community for several years, and the 2016 event did not disappoint,” said Cllr Iain Roberts. “The food was excellent as ever, the entertainment was great fun and there was lots for children and adults to do.”

Iain congratulated the Cheadle Muslim Association on the work they do. “The CMA is far more than a mosque. Their children’s sports facilities are open to the whole community, they run a foodbank and raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity every year,” he said.

Lib Dem councillors from across Stockport came to the open day including Stockport Mayor Chris Gordon, Mark Hunter, Lisa Smart, Keith Holloway, John Pantall, June Somekh, Keith Holloway and Iain Roberts.