St Helier and Epsom Trust will no longer charge staff for parking after being blasted by Piers Morgan.

It comes after The Mirror revealed that the trust were charging workers more than £500 per year, to use the staff car park as they continue to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

On January 26, parking charges were introduced to "manage demand" and reduce queues at its two hospitals, the trust told The Mirror.

Surrey Comet:

One staff member explained their frustration to The Mirror: "A lot of the staff are angry because we’ve had no perks during the pandemic," they said.

“Some people are isolating, some have Covid, we’ve had staff die of Covid, including nurses, cleaners, porters.

“We’re working our socks off, where’s the pat on the back?"

Reacting to the news on Good Morning Britain, Piers blasted the trust and said the charge was "absolutely disgusting".

He said: "These staff have had to put up with the most terrible conditions.

"Utter relentless agony and heartbreak for nearly a year and the reward is that they get hit with £500 a year parking to park in the grounds of the hospital where they are saving lives.

"It is a complete disgrace - we've been campaigning about this throughout the pandemic

"It's shameful that we're making NHS staff pay to park at hospitals and it's got to stop."

The Mirror also reported that the trust received £3.3 million in car parking revenue from April 2019 to March 2020 but it says less than 10% of this was from staff.

Surrey Comet:

Bosses at Epsom and St Helier Trust said staff parking rates were calculated relative to their salary.

Responding to a request for comment from the Sutton Guardian, a spokesperson for the trust confirmed they will no longer charge staff to park at the two sites.

The spokesperson said that staff have access to free parking options based on prioritisation, and that they've increased their free park and ride services, introducing additional pick up and drop off spots.

A spokesperson from Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals said: "We have decided to continue offering free car parking for staff and we are incredibly grateful and proud of all our staff in everything they are doing right now.

"During the unprecedented times of this pandemic, we have introduced a number of measures to support our amazing staff – including free hot meals every day, and a broad range of measures to aid staff health and wellbeing.

"We are also aligned with the Government’s recent commitment that all disabled blue badge holders, frequent outpatient attendees, parents of children staying overnight, as well as night shift NHS staff, are given free parking at hospitals.”