Car park fees at Scottish hospitals were abolished this week by health secretary and Glasgow Govan MSP Nicola Sturgeon.

The £3 daily levy has been enforced since January this year, but Ms Sturgeon said scrapping the charges would ensure "the founding principles of the NHS remain intact."

She added: "It is not fair to expect patients or visitors to have to pay when they come to hospital, when they may be suffering personal anxiety, stress or grief. Put bluntly, a car parking charge is often the last thing people need."

Her decision reverses the inherited Lib-Lab policy and was welcomed by Gillian Smith, director of the royal college of midwives UK board for Scotland.

She told The Extra: "It's really good to get rid of these charges, especially for midwives, who have to drive to work and then park so they can go in and do their job.

"It will be a huge benefit for example, for people with babies in intensive care who have to spend £3 a day to spend time with their child.

"It's great there will be no financial consideration when you go to visit loved ones."

It'll also have good effects on residents around hospitals too. Jane Eddie (26) told The Extra: "Mansionhouse Road is awful for badly-parked cars — mostly by people using the Vicky. They're up on kerbs and on both sides of an already-narrow road.

"Hopefully now the car park costs the same as the street they'll use it rather than choke up Mansionhouse Road."

Samim Lidstone, from Govanhill added: "I'll still park on the street because there aren't many spaces at the Vicky anyway. But I suppose it'll help people driving from places like Clarkston and Newton Mearns."

Conservative MSP and shadow minister for public health, Jackson Carlaw, added: "Scottish Conservatives have consistently campaigned against the hated hospital parking tax.

"I am therefore delighted it is to be abolished."Charges end on December 31.