Warwick Hospital to create almost 100 extra spaces in new patients’ car park

Feedback from patients has led the South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, to turn one of its staff car parks into a second patient and visitor car park.

Staff will be moved to a larger site off Millers Road, which the hospital is hiring for an undisclosed amount.

With 277 spaces and a further 18 for disabled drivers, parking at the Lakin Road site is often difficult during visiting hours, and traders in nearby Millers Road have complained about visitors parking in the street.

Describing parking as a “pressure point”, Matthew Statham, a governor who represents the public of Warwick and Leamington on the trust’s board, believes paying for off-site land for staff is a “novel” approach to a “seemingly unsolvable” problem.

He said: “Car parking has come up at public meetings and governors’ meetings for as long as I’ve been a governor.

“We need to make sure the staff can get to work and we need to make sure the patients and their visitors can get there.”

Mr Statham said governors felt it was “unethical” to make a profit on parking, and that hiring extra space was “the right approach”, adding: “We need to make sure we’re not draining financial resources away from treating patients.”

Chief executive Glen Burley said: “The trust has decided to add an additional patient and visitor car park in order to alleviate some of the pressure that we have been seeing on our existing car park. We always try to take into consideration the best interest of our patients and visitors and this solution offers our local community easier accessibility to our hospital site.”

Work on the new car park has already started and is scheduled to finish by the end of September. It will be signposted as car park B and is located close to the main hospital site, opposite the Aylesford Unit on the far side of Lakin Road from the hospital.

Charges will be the same as in the current car park. A hospital spokeswoman said these cover running costs including CCTV, security patrols and maintenance. Fees can be viewed online.