The survey by the RAC found 64% of motorists said hospital parking charges were the most disliked, while 12% voted for charges made at some supermarkets, shopping centres and other private car parks.

On-street parking in town centres attracted 8% of votes followed by residential parking permits (7%) and railway station parking (4%).

The RAC research, carried out among 1,217 motorists, found that nearly half (48%) think the Government should take action to scrap hospital fees in England – a move which would bring England in line with Wales and Scotland where charges have already been abolished.

More than a quarter of those surveyed (27%), however, said they didn't mind paying a charge to park at a hospital, but that the charges were too high and should be lowered or capped, and a further 21% said they didn't like paying hospital parking charges but felt they were probably necessary.

Motorists also expressed concerns about the limited payment methods provided at hospitals with overwhelming support (63%) for payment always being made on exiting car parks.

In addition, more than half (55%) believe hospital parking machines should always give change and a similar percentage (53%) think hospital parking machines should always have the facility to accept debit or credit card payments.

RAC spokesman Simon Williams said: “While we would like to see parking charges at hospitals in England scrapped that might be an unrealistic hope, particularly as many hospitals appear to be using the additional income to support patient care. Surely, charges should only be made to cover the maintenance and operation costs of car parks and not as a way to generate extra revenue.

“Making hospital parking in England free would mean funds for operating and maintaining car parks would need to be found from other areas of hospital budgets which could potentially have unwelcome consequences for healthcare delivery.

“Recognising this we want to see parking at English hospitals made as fair as possible. At the very least every hospital should be conforming to the car parking principles set out by the NHS which say that staff, patients and visitors should be able to park as safely, conveniently and economically as possible, and that charges should be reasonable for the area.”