New Cross Hospital planning giant new multi-storey to ease parking woes

Bosses at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust have submitted proposals for a 610-space three-storey car park to the east of the hospital’s main entrance on Wolverhampton Road.

It will replace the existing Southern car park, which contains 230 staff parking bays.

The new car park will be staff only, freeing up spaces in other areas of the site to be used by patients and visitors.

Bosses say the new car park will help to address parking and traffic congestion issues which have dogged the site for years, while also helping to attract new staff.

The plans for the project are detailed in a new report which has been submitted to Wolverhampton Council’s planning committee.

It says the scheme will also feature a new access road allowing people to drive directly onto the car park from Wolverhampton Road.

The report notes that the hospital’s expansion – including a new stroke unit and forthcoming extension to the pathology unit – as well as an influx of patients from Stafford Hospital, have ’strained' existing designated car parks and local people.

“The local community has reported an increase in the number of hospital users parking on surrounding domestic roads, causing congestion,” it says.

“The Trust also has a concern that in order to meet its staffing short falls at New Cross hospital it needs to be able to provide parking provision to attract highly skilled employees whose commute to work by car is essential.

“Without this provision it has increasing difficulty in meeting the staffing requirements to run essential services.”

It adds that New Cross will ‘re-allocate staff parking which is currently at various locations around the site, into the new dedicated multi-storey facility, therefore providing more patient and visitor parking to areas which was previously occupied by staff’.

The plans have been welcomed by Heath Town councillor Milkinder Jaspal, who said: "This is a good move. The trust has a duty to be a good neighbour – unfortunately where parking is concerned they haven't been in the past.

"This will alleviate some of the problems, but it won't solve all of them. It is vital that they continue to plan for the future growth in patients."

A spokeswoman for the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust said: “As the largest employer in Wolverhampton, this development would allow us to offer secure on-site parking for our increasing number of patients as well as our dedicated staff.

“Improving the parking at our hospital is essential to improving the experience of our patients, visitors and staff.”

New Cross Hospital currently has 7,560 staff and deals with an estimated 12,000 outpatient appointments per week.

Wolverhampton Council is set to examine the plans in the coming weeks.