Villajoyosa hospital new car park opens at last

AT LONG last Villajoyosa's Marina Baixa hospital has opened its new parking to the public on Monday.

This caught many hospital visitors and patients out, as on Wednesday cars could still be seen parking on the side of the road that leads up to the hospital as there are no signs signalling a new car park.

The new 25,000 sqm car park has space for at 850 vehicles and includes 23 disabled bays.

It is located below the current car park, to the right of the hospital, which is accessed driving up and turning right.

The hospital manager, Rosa Louis, reckons that it will take a few weeks for people to realise that there is no longer any need to park up on narrow country lanes and the access road.

The car park should have been finished two months ago, but the regional health department encountered a couple of problems... one being the presence of asbestos in the area being cleared, and another being the need for a study to be carried out on a direct connection to the Villajoyosa N332 bypass road that runs in front of the hospital.

The project to make this car park a reality began with Villajoyosa council ceding the land to the regional government in 2018.

In February this year, the plot was cleared and flattened and at the end of the summer it was asphalted but not opened to the public. Its 850 spaces added to the 400 spaces from the old car park, and 166 from the car park located to the left of the hospital, bring the total of available vehicle parking spaces to 1,400.

Signs will go up to stop people from parking on the wasteland next to the N332 bypass, to leave space for the future connection with the bypass.

The new car park puts an end to the years of complaints from medical staff and patients alike, who had nowhere to park, and were even mugged when walking to their cars parked in more remote locations.