There were more parking tickets issued in January at Noble’s Hospital car park than in each of the last three years.

Infrastructure Minister Chris Thomas says his department was forced to put in stricter measures this year after finding motorists regularly breaking the rules.

The order was made in December.

In 2020, 30 people were given tickets, in 2021 there were 36 and in 2022, 75 tickets were distributed.

A ‘steep rise’ occurred last month when a total of 144 parking tickets were given out.

Health Minister Lawrie Hooper was asked in the House of Keys sitting this week how many appointments at Noble’s Hospital were missed due to parking issues.

He said that 517 appointments were missed in January, which is about 9.7% of the total arranged during the month.

However, only two patients had contacted the hospital and cited problems with parking.

Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Jason Moorhouse asked if the ‘substantial’ number of people who had missed their appointments in January had been contacted to find out why.

Mr Hooper said that if Manx Care chased 10% of its appointments then it ‘would be spending all [its] time chasing these’.

Upon being asked if Manx Care should be outsourcing to private firms to chase these up, the minister added that the organisation doesn’t have the funding.

He explained that there are multiple car parks available as the main car park is often ‘full and overflowing’.

Mr Hooper said that there are plenty of complaints from people unable to park in the main car park with direct access to the hospital.

‘There are other means of accessing Noble’s,’ he said.