Dad turned away from Alder Hey car park as he had electric vehicle

A dad said he was turned away from a hospital car park because he had an electric car.

Paul Freeman-Powell, from Allerton, had travelled to Alder Hey Children's Hospital with wife Rachel for an appointment for his son Joshua on Wednesday, May 1. The seven-year-old's appointment was not in the main building but on the children’s health campus, next to the hospital.

The 38-year-old claimed when the family arrived at the building there were cones across the entrance of the car park. After telling a security guard their car was an electric vehicle when he asked, they were then told they could not use the car park.

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The security guard reportedly said this was because "the battery will react with the metal carpark and it might catch fire/explode". Paul was told to park on grass nearby.

A spokesperson for the hospital told the BBC it temporarily banned access to the car park while it improved its sprinkler system. Paul said he tried explaining to the security guard that the hospital's policy didn't make sense.

But the family complied with parking on the nearby grass as they worried about missing their son's appointment - which they said they had waited years for.

Speaking to the ECHO, Paul said: "We had waited nearly five years for the appointment and did not want to miss it. The letter we got sent does not say electric cars can't park there. It was completely out of the blue.

"We had also fought through rush hour traffic. The letter said if we didn't come to the appointment then we would get discharged."

In a statement to the BBC, a spokesperson for Alder Hey Children's Hospital said it had "temporarily restricted the parking of electric vehicles in one of our smaller car parks while we upgrade its fire sprinkler system."

It added: "Electric vehicles are still able to park in our main hospital car park". The statement also said that car park has 14 spaces with EV charging points.

The BBC also contacted Merseyside Fire and Rescue for comment. Paul also shared a picture on X, formerly Twitter, of a sign at the entrance to the car park which read “no electric vehicles”.

Colin Walker, head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, referenced data from the Australian body EV FireSafe, which found petrol cars were 80 times more likely than electric vehicles to start a fire.

He said: “It’s important that drivers understand the relative risks."

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