Proposal for extra hospital parking

Durham NHS Trust has applied to improve parking and access at the hospital for when it becomes a trauma centre for South Durham.

The plans submitted to Darlington Borough Council include re-organising the visitors' car park and building a deck for cars above it.

A new car park is planned for the Merrion Centre, a centre for child and family health, separate from the main hospital car park.

Staff and consultant parking would also be re-organised.

The trust has applied to remodel the single-storey building that fronts the main hospital block to create an entrance foyer.

There are also plans to provide a sensory garden linking the entrance foyer with Hollyhurst Road, and forming a new public entrance for hospital parking.

Trust spokesman, Edmond Lovell, said he would not expect the work to be completed for at least two years, and that the application was just the start of the re-organisation.

"Anyone who has been a patient or a visitor at Darlington Memorial Hospital will know the parking is a key concern, and we have needed to look at the problems for some time," he said.

"There just isn't enough parking at the hospital, so we need to look at that for the benefit of patients and their visitors, but also for residents who live nearby.

"When people can't park at the hospital they tend to park outside people's houses in nearby streets."

He said that as more and more services moved to the Darlington Memorial site, the parking and access would become a bigger issue.

"There is also an issue about segregating ambulance traffic on to the site and improving access as the Memorial Hospital becomes more of a major trauma centre for South Durham," he said.

"This means it is becoming busier, with more emergencies and major surgery, with more and more ambulances needing to get to the hospital."

Mr Lovell said the trust wanted to improve the environment at the hospital and was considering introducing a cycle route.