Agenda item

Creation of two new staff car parks and demolition of two existing staff car parks, plus creation of some additional infill car paring spaces around the trust site and repositioning of the helipad

Officers presented the application and described the proposed reconfiguration of the existing parking areas with reference to the slides in the presentation pack. 

In summary the main changes proposed were to replace the existing staff car park with a new parking area to the north of the main hospital building.  This would also involve the re-positioning of the existing helipad.  The existing staff parking at the south eastern corner of the site would be expanded to add extra spaces.  The existing public parking area would be reconfigured with a slightly altered lay out and re-located entry/exit points. Additional staff spaces would be created along the western edge of the main hospital building.

Conditions were proposed to ensure the creation of the new staff parking area would be completed before the closure of the existing staff parking area.

The application was recommended for approval.

At the invitation of the Chair, Councillor Emma Marshall addressed the committee in her capacity as ward member for the area.

In responding to questions from Members, officers clarified that the number of parking spaces that would be displaced was 307 and the number of replacement spaces would be 302 giving a net loss of 5 spaces.  The changes would include the installation of some electric vehicle charging points.

The plans did not include the creation of a hackney carriage stand for taxis.

With regard to the re-location of the helipad, and concerns over health and safety, officers advised that the hospital would be required to comply with all other regulating bodies and statutory provisions in that regard, and that questioning these very technical aspects would be outside the role of Members on the committee.

In debating the application Members expressed concerns around the existing pressures on car parking at the hospital and the resultant overspill of vehicles that could not be accommodated on the site into nearby streets and residential areas.  This included users of the hospital and staff parking on streets off Woodrow Drive and on Nine Days Lane. 

Albeit that the net loss of spaces was small, Members were concerned about the displacement of more vehicles. It was not clear what the precise breakdown of the 302 spaces would be as between public and staff parking.  Officers did not have further figures available although it was pointed out that there might be a later addition of a small number of spaces following the demolition of the empty staff accommodation blocks.

Following further discussion Members concluded that they did not have sufficient information to reach a final decision and that the application should be deferred.  Officers were requested by Members to go back to the applicant to pass on the comments made about the net loss of spaces and find out more detailed information about the numbers of parking spaces.

RESOLVED that

the application be deferred to a future meeting of the Planning Committee to allow officers the opportunity to find out more information from the applicant as to the reconfiguration of the parking areas and the numbers of parking spaces affected.