Cannock hospital to get council car park

The 200-space Beecroft Road car park currently used by council staff is considered to be more convenient for users of the hospital, just across the road.

It is planned to provide a further 80 spaces by knocking down the unused caretaker bungalows on site. Council staff will be provided with car parking further away.

The £300,000 move has been made to cater for the significant rise in visitors predicted with the transfer of several NHS services to Cannock in the shake-up that followed failings at Stafford Hospital.

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, which manages Cannock Hospital, approached the council over extra parking. The hospital is set to provide a range of new specialist services, including gynaecology, orthopaedics, gastroenterology, paediatrics and ante-natal care, treating Wolverhampton as well as Cannock residents.

There is currently an NHS-funded X68 bus between New Cross Hospital and Cannock Hospital on a six-month trial basis. The bus service began in February but it is expected it will not cope with all the extra patients who will be using the hospital.

The charging regime for the new pay-and-display car park will be the same as the council-managed Beecroft Road car park, where no fees apply after 6.30pm on weekdays and Saturdays with free parking on Sundays and bank holidays.

As well as Cannock Council staff, the car park is used by employees of Staffordshire County Council and Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent NHS Partnership Trust who are also based at the Civic Centre.

The new parking arrangements are expected to come into force in September.

Tony McGovern, the council's managing director, said: "We are doing what we can to make the hospital a success."

Trust chief executive David Loughton said :"It is important that we find solutions to parking problems for staff and patients."

A report will be submitted to the council's cabinet on Thursday.