New parking level could stop cars blocking patients
Hospital to build up to create more spaces
A new level of parking could be added at a hospital to solve daily problems of finding a space for staff and patients.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust wants to add a concrete deck above its existing car park off Hermitage Lane to provide 211 spaces for staff. Designers visited Maidstone Hospital in November last year, where they saw cars blocking a two-way ring road, staff parked in a middle aisle, again blocking traffic, and vehicles on grass verges.
The expansion at Maidstone comes after the hospital was identified as one of three that will be upgraded to provide Hyper Acute Stroke Services. The hospital is also home to the Kent Oncology Centre, which treats cancer patients from across the county. Documents submitted by Stripe Consulting, on behalf of the hospital’s trust read: “Patients with either of these two conditions rely heavily on relatives giving them a lift to hospital for treatment with very limited numbers choosing to move by public transport. “To accommodate additional visitor parking on site arising from these two new healthcare services provided, the trust is planning to reassign some of its staff parking spaces to patients and visitors parking.
“To re-provide the displaced staff car parking, the trust is seeking to obtain planning permission for a single deck car park comprising 208 spaces on the northern part of staff Car Park (at the southern end of the site) and would provide for 211 net additional car parking spaces overall. This re-provision is considered to be necessary as the site does not have capacity to accommodate the transfer without replacement provision.”
MTW NHS Trust has submitted an application to Maidstone Borough Council for the new parking level. If approved it could bring the number of parking spaces up to around 700. The trust also has plans to increase parking at Tunbridge Wells hospital by around 150 spaces.
Tunbridge Wells Hospital has 447 visitor spaces and 818 staff spaces.
The trust has applied for planning permission from Tunbridge Wells Borough Council.
The application can be viewed by the public once TWBC validates it.
To view the Maidstone Hospital proposals, search MBC’s planning portal with reference 20/500163/FULL.