If only this had been the true April Fool story

The news that Leighton Hospital has just doubled some of its parking charges – by roughly fifty times the Government's version of the inflation rate – might mean that many will have wished that Audlem Online's 1st April story that Audlem aims to become Welsh was a true story. After all, Wales enjoys both free parking at NHS hospitals and free prescriptions. It will now cost £3 to park for over 20 minutes at Leighton, a 50% increase, while overnight parking has doubled from £5 to £10.

Just to rub salt in the parking wound, prescription charges were also increased in England on 1st April. Prescriptions remain free in Wales and, in contrast to the rise in England, were reduced in Scotland by £2. The Scots are also aiming to reduce their charges to zero. While it seems to be increasingly expensive to live in England rather than Wales or Scotland, our story on 1st April that Audlem aimed to become Welsh was entirely fictitious – albeit some may think increasingly tempting!

The 'true' story amongst Audlem Online's nine April 1st stories was the Lost trolley policy, 'true' in the sense that it is a model policy under the entirely real Clean Neighbourhood and Environment Act 2005. Local councils are meant to have such policies, although we did make up one bit – 'The average cost of this process should normally be limited to £1,000 per trolley although this can rise annually by five times the rate of inflation...' In practice, there's no £1,000 limit to the costs! Indeed, judging by the Leighton Hospital parking charge rise, we could have opted for fifty times the rate of inflation – without being accused of exaggeration.

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