Hospital park and ride set for go-ahead amid car park wait

IT WILL OPERATE FOR UP TO TWO YEARS WHILE ‘MUCH-NEEDED’ MULTI-STOREY FACILITY IS CONSTRUCTED

A NEW and temporary park and ride service for patients and visitors to Royal Derby Hospital is set to be given the go-ahead.

Councillors of Derby City Council’s planning committee have been recommended to grant hospital bosses planning permission for a new temporary car park and bus service at Kingsway Boulevard.

The park and ride service will be in operation for up to two years while a new and “much-needed” five-storey multi-storey car park is built on the grounds of Royal Derby Hospital. Bosses of the hospital have previously said it was hoped to start construction work this spring but no more specific timescales have yet been given.

Plans were submitted to the council by the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust last year for temporary car parks to be in operation while construction works take place.

One of the new temporary car parks set for discussion at a council meeting next week is land off Kingsway Boulevard – a short distance away from the city hospital. The plans are for there to be 368 spaces which will include a shuttle bus service to transport people from the car park to the main hospital site. Planning documents say the new car park will be open from 8am until 6pm, seven days a week. The bus service will transport visitors and patients from this off-site car park to the hospital site and will drop off at a number of points around the hospital.

The bus service would run every 20 minutes from the car park to the hospital, thus picking up three times an hour. There is also a walking route from the car park to the hospital which would take around 20 minutes. Details of the cost of the car park and shuttle bus are not yet disclosed.

A council report to councillors before the next planning committee meeting on Thursday, April 25, states: “The current proposal whilst not without its own issues is possibly the only option to providing temporary car parking to allow the muchneeded multi storey car park to be brought forward.

“Construction of the multi-storey car park cannot commence until a temporary car park has been provided.”

Plans have also been submitted for an additional temporary “overflow” car park off land at Manor Park Way, which would comprise 145 spaces. This is under a separate planning application and is under consideration.

Construction of the new car park can’t commence until a temporary car park has been provided.

Council report