Driveway offered to Royal Preston nurse whose car was vandalised after parking in a residential street

The student, who does not want to be named, last week returned to her vehicle to find one of its tyres had been let down after she had parked - legally - on an estate opposite the Sharoe Green Lane site.

Earlier in the day, she was verbally abused by a resident after she removed a cone which had been placed on the roof of a colleague's car - in an apparent protest at where it had been parked.

Responding to the offer of a secure place to park, she said: “The world needs more people like this man.”

As the Lancashire Post reported yesterday, other students and full-time NHS staff have been similarly targeted - with vehicles also being scratched and one even having a cone wedged beneath it.

It prompted the local landlord - who also wants to remain anonymous - to invite the trainee to park on the driveway of a house which he lets just yards from the hospital entrance. The current tenant does not have a car and the space is going unused.

“I just think it’s so unfair that students who are working for free - and other NHS staff - are being made to suffer like this,” he said.

“I would have offered anyway when I heard about it, because the hospital does a really good job. But my own wife was treated there a couple of weeks ago and everybody was fantastic, so I really wanted to try to help.”

Overwhelmed by the offer, the student said the landlord had “restored her faith in humanity”.

“He must be a lovely man - this really does mean everything to me,” she said.

“It means I will be able to go to work and not worry about what is happening to my car and what I will come back to at the end of my shift.

“I’m glad that he had such a good experience at the hospital - that’s what we’re here to do.”

Since the incident late last week, the 22-year-old has resorted to leaving a note on her windscreen, pleading with perturbed locals not to cause any further damage - and pointing out that she was parked legally and does not get paid for her time on placement at the hospital.

Some residents had been known to stand in their windows at shift changeover times to try prevent staff parking outside their homes. But the trainee said that others had reassured her that they did not mind her parking near their properties.

And she appealed for anybody else in a position to provide a space to match the generosity of the landlord’s offer - which she said would be hugely appreciated by colleagues facing a similar situation.

Insisting that he did not want any publicity, the landlord said that people were getting far too protective over parking spaces which are legitimately available for all.

“Some residents near my other properties put bins or cones out to stop others parking. It’s over the top and actually quite dangerous, because it’s another obstacle for drivers to negotiate.

“I’ve had somebody come out and shout at me for stopping in a space in front of their house. I just said to them, ‘Why, has it got your name on it?’”

Speaking during a break from work at the Royal Preston, the student nurse said she would be getting in touch with the landlord as soon as her shift had finished - the last one during which she will have had to worry about parking as well as treating patients.