YEOVIL NEWS: Hospital multi-storey car park plan gets go-ahead

YEOVIL District Hospital has today (Wednesday, September 2, 2015) been given the go-ahead to build a multi-storey car park in a bid to ease its “nightmare” parking chaos.

Planning officer Simon Fox spent more than an hour talking in detail about the much-needed proposals to build the new facilities – but councillors took barely a few minutes to unanimously vote in favour of giving the application the thumbs-up.

Cllr Mike Lock, speaking at today’s Area South meeting of South Somerset District Council, summed up the current parking situation at the hospital in one sentence. “It’s a nightmare,” he said.

The hospital’s chief executive, Paul Mears, told councillors that sorting out the parking problems were an “absolute necessity” and said that at the moment things were “woefully and totally inadequate.”

The proposals will see a four-storey 654 space car park created on land opposite the hospital along with a new exit from Higher Kingston onto the Kingston dual-carriageway. Higher Kingston will become one-way for traffic from its junction with Roping Road.

The current on-site parking provision for visitors, patients and staff at the hospital is for 530 spaces, but the new proposals will see that increase to 865.

Councillors were told that the car park would be governed by CCTV and that people would get a ticket on entering the barrier controlled entrance and pay on departure.

A hospital report said: “The proposed car park is a vital project for the future of Yeovil District Hospital.

“Without it a series of improvements in the estate to facilitate better healthcare services for the people of Yeovil could be put in jeopardy.

“Patients need to be able to access all services easily, which the new car park and access road will provide.”

The main visitor car park at present will – in time – be built on to provide a new health campus.

But not everyone is happy about the proposals. Residents living nearby are concerned about the impact the multi-storey car park will have on their own homes.

Russell Rowland, of Roping Road, told councillors that he felt the car park would be an “eyesore and out of place.”

But Cllr Peter Seib said that although he had sympathy for residents in the area he felt that the need for extra car parking at the hospital was “essential” for the town as a whole.

PHOTO - ABOVE: The envisaged multi-storey car park can be seen at the top of site layout, while it would be one-way for traffic going from east to west along Higher Kingston from the junction with Roping Road and you can see the exit access onto the Kingston dual-carriageway on the left. The existing hospital car park is to the right of the site, but that will - eventually - become home to a health and social care campus.

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