More than 3,000 workers have applied for passes at a new £6m staff car park at a Black Country hospital – more than four times the number of available spaces.

The multi-storey, built at the rear of Dudley’s Russells Hall Hospital, opened on December 20 and has 691 spots.

Permits have been allocated using a set of criteria which has taken factors such as where staff live into account. Hospital bosses said priority had been given to on-call workers, shift workers, permanent night workers and disabled staff.

Workers who had to catch three or more buses or trains and where it would take more than an hour to get to work using public transport were also given priority.

But staff living within a mile of the hospital were told they could not apply for a permit, which costs between £5 and £15 a month.

Chief executive Paula Clark said: “More than 3,000 staff applied for a permit to park at the trust sites.

“An initial wave of permits has been issued and further analysis of appeals will be ongoing to ensure that those staff who need access to the staff car parks are prioritised.  We will have a better idea of numbers once this is complete.

“The trust will continue to seek alternative cost-effective parking solutions for staff as well as encouraging them to consider alternative methods of transport as part of the development of a Green Travel Plan, which is a requirement of the planning approval for the new car park.

“A restriction on staff parking permits has become necessary for several reasons: local authority planning restrictions only allow us one space for every four members of staff, there are ongoing concerns over cars being blocked in and also to ease parking for staff who are required to move between sites and make community visits who are unable to find a parking space when they return.”

Bosses hope the new car park will help ease congestion on surrounding streets where workers along with patients and visitors have been leaving their cars.