VANDALS have damaged a barrier at the centre of a parking dispute among staff at Kidderminster Hospital.

The row emerged this week after staff complained they had been charged for parking facilities that had not been available to them.

A worker, who did not wish to be named, said she and her colleagues were "angry" money had been deducted from their wages for parking in the staff car park in Hume Street from May 1 - even though the barrier system was not operational until the end of July.

Just days after technical problems preventing its use were remedied, an act of vandalism at the start of August stopped the barrier working again - and it only became active again on Monday.

The member of staff who contacted the Shuttle/Times & News said that, without the barrier system in operation, some staff had been forced to park on the road because spaces were filled with cars belonging to the public.

She said staff were also annoyed because they had been "promised" secure fencing around the car park but that had been deemed "impractical" and dropped.

Describing the situation as "a farce", she said: "I think Redditch and Worcester may have had their barrier system in place before us and we were told that as they were going to be charged from May 1, it would be unfair if we were charged later.

"But, if that was the case, they should have co-ordinated things."

Richard Haynes, head of communications for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, confirmed staff at all three hospitals had been charged from May 1 but said that was for on-site parking, regardless of whether barriers were working.

He admitted, however, there had been a problem with people misusing the staff car park in Kidderminster and that staff had been charged regardless of whether they had found spaces.

He said it had been "very hard to police" without the barrier working and advised staff with parking issues to raise them at a meeting to be held in the "very near future".

Saying the trust would monitor the barrier system carefully, he added: "Our contention is that there was only one day last week when it would have been impossible to find a parking space."