Free parking at hospital starts today

PATIENTS, visitors and staff at Wales’ largest hospital will be able to park their cars on-site for free from today .

Parking provision at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff had been policed by private firm Indigo, which charged people between £2.20 and £10 per vehicle each day.

But the contract between Indigo and the hospital has now ended, in line with Welsh Government policy to make all hospital car parks free of charge.

Parking Eye has now taken over the running of the car parks and will issue tickets to anyone who parks illegally.

And even though parking is free, drivers will still need to register their car details at one of 40 terminals on the UHW site if they stay for longer than four hours.

Registering will allow people to keep their cars on the site for an additional four hours.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras will also be in operation across the site.

A spokeswoman for the health board said: “Parking charge notices will be issued either by on-site wardens walking the site or via post via the ANPR cameras.

“We urge patients and visitors to pay attention to the new traffic system as the vast majority of the site will be covered by an ANPR system. It is not simply a question of being caught out by a warden on the day.”

The health board said 16,000 cars use UHW daily, which is why it is important to hire a company to manage the site.

Despite the hospital expanding to house a new trauma centre, there are no plans to increase car-parking provision.

Instead, the health board is urging people to use the park-and-ride facilities in the Pentwyn area of the city or find other ways of getting to the site as part of a Sustainable Travel Plan in conjunction with local authorities.

Cardiff councillor Fenella Bowden, of the Heath ward, said the issue of parking at UHW has been “a thorny one” for as long as she can remember.

“The pressures on the roads surrounding UHW in Heath ward, and neighbouring Gabalfa and Cathays wards, have increased significantly over the past few years, not least because more clinical services are being run out of UHW,” said Cllr Bowden.

“The ‘sustainable transport’ solution is great in theory, but there is nothing which joins it all together.

“Accessing UHW from the park and ride in Pentwyn is to be welcomed, and I’m glad to see that this service will become free.

“What we need is a similar provision in the north of the city to provide parking and swift access to UHW for staff, visitors and patients. I have been calling for this since being elected in 2008.

“There is a suggestion that there will be a park-and-ride interchange in Nantgarw as part of the City Deal, but this has not been agreed yet and will take at least five years to become operational.

“This therefore continues to make it difficult for staff to get to work and we shall continue to see parking in surrounding roads within our wards.”

Parking Eye is already in charge of parking provision at University Hospital Llandough, St David’s Hospital in Canton and Barry Hospital.