A Black Country hospital is spending half a million pounds on a temporary staff car park while its £6 million multi-storey goes up, it has emerged.
Bosses at Dudley’s Russells Hall Hospital want to introduce a park-and-ride service - costing £500,000 - for medics who will not be able to park on site while works on the new 600-space car park are ongoing. But critics say the scheme on land in Dreadnought Road, Pensnett, is a waste of money which will cause traffic chaos.
The new multi-storey, which it is hoped will reduce parking congestion around the hospital, was given the green light in March and work is expected to start in September.
The temporary facility will only be in use for around ten months - costing the hospital £50,000 a month.
Paul Farenden, chief executive of the Trust, said the temporary car park was needed to ensure vital services were not cut.
He added Dreadnought Road had been chosen for the site to minimise traffic problems as many staff currently used the route to get to work.
The outlay on the multi-storey scheme has come under fire from people who say it will not work unless parking charges at the site are removed.
And today the latest development also came under fire from Councillor Geoffrey Southall, a critic of the multi-storey plans, who said the proposal could create a whole host of problems.
“The cost of this is not going to be inconsiderable.
“There is the building work, plus the hire of buses, and I would have some doubt as to whether it’s the best use of financial resources,” he said.
“It is going to cause a lot of extra traffic in the area with cars going on to the site, cars coming off the site and buses. I can’t think that a lot of people who live around there are going to be very pleased about it.
“And what is the site going to revert to when it becomes surplus to requirements when the car park is finished?”
And Richard Davenhill, managing director of Dreadnought Tiles in Dreadnought Road, echoed concerns about traffic.
He said: “In peak periods Dreadnought Road fills up from one end to another. It will only add to the congestion in the area.”
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