Calls to use County Hall HQ for hospital parking

Fresh calls are being made to use Worcestershire's County Hall as overflow hospital parking.

A new administration taking control of the council will face questions over the authority's Worcester headquarters, which has been closed since June last year.

Green Party and Independent councillors have called for County Hall car parks to be opened up to staff, patients and visitors at nearby Worcestershire Royal Hospital for an initial nine months.

Their motion is to be debated at a council meeting on Thursday – the first since elections earlier this month, when Reform UK became the largest party with 27 seats but remained two short of an overall majority.

In the motion, councillors also called for more bays for Beryl Bikes, which is a bike-sharing scheme in the city, to be installed at the Spetchley Road end of the council site.

The motion said: "Worcestershire County Council's empty car parks at County Hall are just a few minutes' traffic-free walk away from the hospital.

"Allowing these car parks temporarily to be used for overspill hospital parking could reduce congestion on the hospital site immediately while the longer-term solutions are put in place."

Plans to build a multi-storey car park next to the hospital were approved in March, but councillors behind the motion said: "This will take several months to be built."

It is suggested the council could charge £3 a day for parking at County Hall to bring in revenue and that "a significant number of car parking spaces" should be opened up.

Councillors said details would need to be worked through to prevent an adverse impact on county workers and visitors and to address residents' concerns.

They said a park-and-ride scheme for hospital staff, visitors and patients had been spoken about for months now, but still nothing was in place.

In February, 50 parking spaces were temporarily made available for hospital staff while their usual parking was improved.

The council offices have been shut since June last year, after potentially dangerous RAAC concrete and legionella bacteria were detected.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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