Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust has welcomed the news that the planning application for a ‘deck’ over car park one, outside the main entrance at St. Peter’s Hospital, has been approved by the Planning Committee at Runnymede Borough Council.

Director of Performance, Information and Facilities, Ian Mackenzie commented: “This is great news and we are grateful toRunnymede for agreeing the plan.   We can now start preparatory work and, although it will be several months before we can start building the deck, at least we now know that there is an end to some of the parking problems which have blighted the hospital for a number of years.”

Because the ‘deck’ is to be built over an existing car park it is necessary to plan the development carefully to minimise the number of spaces taken out of action at any one time to facilitate the building.   The Trust is also planning to change the flow of traffic around the car park to improve the entrance and exit of cars and make access to the BMI Runnymede hospital easier.

Ian continued: “We are grateful to patients, visitors and staff for their patience whilst we reached this point.   Every one knows how difficult parking can be at St. Peter's Hospital at peak times. Over the past few years we have tried many ways to help alleviate the pressures and putting a deck on car park one is not the end.   We continue to look at other ways to increase the number of car park spaces and reduce car usage.”

The new car park deck will provide around 150 additional spaces.   The work to erect the ‘deck’ would take place later in 2007 but would only take a couple of months to complete.   The deck would not be visible from the main road as it is screened by trees.

Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Trust has worked hard to promote schemes such as Surrey Car Share and cycling to work.   There has been investment in new bicycle shelters, and the existing car parks have been re-designated to help clear up confusion between staff and public parking areas.   Bus routes have been improved, and the ‘Hospital Hopper’ inter-site bus service has had extra trips timetabled to allow staff and patients to travel between the two hospitals more conveniently.

More recently the Trust has implemented a plan for staff at St. Peter’s to park in two nearby car-parks.  The Trust now provides a shuttle service from Homewood park car-park which is adjacent to the St. Peter’s Hospital site.    As an alternative, staff are encouraged to park at Murray Road car-park in Ottershaw, opposite the Otter public house, and to walk to and from (approx 10-15mins) the hospital.    Both schemes have had some success.

Planning permission is also being sought to introduce barrier control ticketing, which would have a two fold effect.   

Patients and visitors would pay to leave the car park rather than the current ‘pay and display’ system.   This would save patients and visitors the worry about whether their ticket had expired and mean that those entitled to ‘season’ tickets would not have to claim refunds.  

Barrier controls will also be installed at staff car parks, enabling them to be used solely for staff. Car park one, outside the Main Entrance, is for patients and visitors only and staff are not permitted to park there.