By Marjory Inglis, health reporter

VINCI PARK, the private firm that runs the car parks at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, is discussing the possibility of a buy-out of its contract, it emerged yesterday.

But the firm will not publicly discuss the compensation it would seek in the event of early severance of the contract which still has two decades to run.

Any such deal may yet not make it off the starting blocks if Vinci Park sets the asking price so high it is beyond the financial resources of NHS Tayside and proves too prohibitive for a buy-out by the Scottish Government.

The Courier calculates that it would take nearly £50 million to meet the cash collection Vinci Park could expect from parking meters over the next 20 years, without allowing for the inexorable rise in vehicles using the car parks, or the inflation busting rises in charges built in to the contract. Users currently pay £1.60 per visit.

The Courier previously made a crude calculation of the amount of cash the firm collects from parking meters on the site, using a number of statistics that were already in the public domain, including vehicle numbers currently using the car parks. That calculation revealed around £2.3 million a year was collected—a figure never challenged by Vinci Park.

As revealed by The Courier yesterday, there is no get-out clause in the contract between NHS Tayside and Vinci Park. Any buy-out would have to be negotiated, giving Vinci Park the upper hand to name its price.

Hospital parking charges became a battleground for Scotland’s politicians when Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon announced on the first day of the new parliamentary session that she would be abolishing hospital parking charges, except where Public Finance Initiative deals were in place—the very situation that exists at Ninewells.

She said the cost of buying out the contracts would be prohibitive.

That caused a storm of protest from opposition MSPs who pointed out that millions of pounds were found to dump bridge tolls and give users of the Tay and the Forth bridges equity with motorists over in the west where tolls on the Skye and Erskine bridges were removed.

The politicians became locked in a battle over the true cost of terminating the contract for Ninewells parking after Ms Sturgeon said the cost would be “tens of millions of pounds.”

But NHS Tayside’s chief operating officer Gerry Marr told Holyrood’s health committee earlier this year that the figure would be around £10 million.

The Courier pointed out yesterday that arguments over the true cost of a buy-out would be irrelevant if Vinci Park declined to negotiate, given there was no get-out clause in the contract. Vinci Park at that point had not responded to queries.

However, the firm last night issued a statement that quite clearly says they are talking to NHS Tayside, although a spokeswoman for the private firm declined to be drawn further.

She declined to agree or comment further when it was put to her that by stating it was involved in negotiations, Vinci Park was clearly not ruling out the possibility of a buy-out.

But it would seem self- evident that by talking the firm is at the very least considering the possibility of making an early withdrawal from the contract.

The only public statement made on behalf of Vinci Park yesterday was, “There is a contract, which is between Vinci Park and NHS Tayside, with whom we have always enjoyed a positive and open working relationship.

“We have, of course, been discussing this situation with our client and are continuing to do so in order to identify the best way forward.”