Patients and visitors will soon have more ways to pay for parking at Sherwood Forest Hospitals.

A new Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) visitor parking system is expected to go live at King’s Mill Hospital, Sutton; and Mansfield Community Hospital on Thursday, 14th November and at Newark Hospital on Friday, 15th November.

The ticketless system aims to help improve flow in and out of car parks and ensure both visitors and employees park in designated car parks to help ease parking difficulties.

With ANPR, vehicle registration plates are scanned by camera on arrival and payment is made before leaving the car park. A physical ticket is not provided.

Payment machines at all three hospitals will take cash, card and contactless payments. Motorists are asked to make a note of their vehicle registration if they wish to pay by machine. In addition to this, people will have the option to pay via an app called Trust, which can be downloaded from app stores for smartphones.

Richard Mills, chief financial officer, who oversees estates and facilities at Sherwood Forest Hospitals, said: “We hope the introduction of ANPR will improve vehicle movement on site by providing a quicker entrance and exit at our car parks.

“The new system will make it easier for patients and visitors by offering more ways to pay, which is particularly good news at Newark Hospital where coins have been the only method of payment.

“We know spaces are limited and parking can be challenging at times, so we are grateful for everyone’s support and patience as we continue to improve our car parking arrangements.”

The pricing structure has changed to bring visitor parking charges in line with other trusts in the region and includes a free 30-minute drop-off period, which has increased from 15 minutes.

There are also drop-off zones outside the main entrance at all hospitals and the Emergency Department at King’s Mill where visitors can park for 10 minutes.