I WAS interested to read J Coomb's letter concerning the parking situation at Great Western Hospital.

As a true Swindonian I am appalled at the impression our hospital gave to this visitor to the town.

As a cancer patient I have to make regular visits to the hospital and, wherever possible, use the bus into town then the excellent Hospital Express service from there. But this is not always possible, depending on how I am feeling.

On May 6, the day after receiving another course of chemotherapy, I was feeling quite poorly but anxious to visit my daughter at GWH who had just had an operation.

On this occasion I needed to go by car. On arrival the car park situation was the worst I have ever known it (on a previous occasion there was a 30-minute wait for a space, I thought that was bad enough).

We drove around four times, even all the double yellow lines were parked on, even two abreast in some places.

If I was able-bodied we could have parked in Liden or Coate but then, if I had been able-bodied, I would have used the bus.

By this time I was feeling so sick I needed to park somewhere so in desperation we parked in a yellow permit holder spot as there were half a dozen places free.

Admittedly I knew we never had a yellow permit. I didn't even know what they were, but it wasn't as if we took the last one or two spaces and we bought a parking ticket to show our willingness to pay. After all we were only staying less than an hour because of the way I was feeling.

On our return to the car we found we had a parking ticket slapped on the windscreen for £60 (reduced to £30 if paid within 14 days). The frustration I felt made me feel worse.

Later I appealed to Swindon Borough Council, which was totally unsympathetic and said that I had no grounds for an appeal. I also found out at a later date that yellow permits were issued to private patients only!

What on earth is going on in Swindon?

They built a hospital they know isn't going to be big enough for a town this size with so much wasted space and corridors that tire out patients and staff alike and, although I fully support public transport there are times, like my own, when cars have to be used and the parking facilities are just so inadequate.

I would like to ask where patients are meant to park when they feel so ill they can't drive around indefinitely.

Mrs E MORTIMER

Greenmeadow