We have indeed had a parking victory at The Conquest.

This is good news, and I'm glad that The Observer has been willing to help us celebrate.

It is to the credit of the local Hospitals Trust that they have listened to the stories and the frustration of local people and decided to reverse the decision, taken in March, to delay 'pay as you leave' parking for another year.

According to the news release from the Trust last week, we will also see a period of 20 minutes free of charge – for pick up and drop off – as part of the new deal.

I am proud of the part that I have played in helping the Trust to understand how unfair local people found the previous regime.

There has always been a good relationship between Hastings & Rye people and the hospital, and a great deal of pride and gratitude for the services provided, and the staff who work at the Conquest.

I am afraid that the parking charges situation had started to corrode this good relationship, and I am pleased that the Trust has listened to those of us who have been demanding change, and has acted.

It is a wonderful first step in a process of change. We must now make sure that the pricing of the car parking is set at an affordable level. We must also, in my view, look at whether or not staff who work at the Conquest should be paying for parking.

These will be some of the issues that I will be raising at the cross-party meeting that I have arranged with the Chair of the Board, Irene Dibben (as well as my Labour and Conservative counterparts) on Friday of this week.

I have already received correspondence from people asking how the new regime will affect them in their particular situation, and I will be taking some of these questions to the meeting on Friday.

If you have a question that you want raised at the cross-party meeting, please contact me via my blog (the address of which you will find below) and I will be happy to try to find the answer for you.

Finally, may I thank, once again, all those people that have contacted Margaret Williams and I over the past weeks and months to give us the information we have needed to put pressure on the Trust to reconsider their position on hospital parking charges.

This victory is just as much yours as it is ours.

Please be assured that we will continue the work, so that we can be proud not only of the services delivered at, but also the accessibility of, our hospital.

(To read more about what Nick has been up to, check out his blog – 'Nick Perry for Hastings & Rye' at www.nickperrylibdem.wordpress.com]