A motion calling for the unused car parks at County Hall to be used as overflow parking was agreed at a full county council meeting on Thursday 22nd May following a campaign and petition set up by Green councillors Andrew Cross and Katie Collier.
Since the closure of County Hall to staff due to both RAAC and legionella, the car parks have remained largely empty, while parking at Worcestershire Royal Infirmary has become a nightmare for staff, patients and visitors. In April 2024 Katie and Andrew raised concerns about this situation and in December set up a petition calling for the County Hall car parks to be made available to ease congestion, air pollution and stress at the hospital site.
Almost 2000 people had signed the petition when Katie presented it a county council meeting in February. Katie pointed out that the situation had become so severe that staff were having to time the discharge of newborn babies carefully to avoid them being caught up in queues of drivers exiting the car parks which were sometimes well over an hour to clear at peak times.
The Green and independent Alliance group at the County Council put forward Councillor Andrew Cross’s motion at the first full council meeting since the elections, which called for some of the County Hall car parks to be made available for hospital staff to use for a suggested period of 9 months initially and also for more Beryl bike bays to be put in place to provide more active travel options and to help reduce vehicle traffic. During his presentation of the motion, Andrew raised the issues that patients arriving by car were missing appointments due to being unable to find parking spaces, and that wheelchair users who were dependent on taxis to get to hospital were finding that some taxi drivers would not take them because of the difficulty in exiting the hospital site.
The motion was welcomed across all parties and it was noted that officers would work to ensure that there would be no additional cost to taxpayers or the council as a result of the decision.