'Going green' will help hospital's parking problem

4 January 2001

The West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds is asking staff to 'go green' to help solve the problems of parking on its site.

New and growing services have meant more patients, visitors and staff at the hospital than ever before and although the number of spaces has also increased it has not kept up with demand.

"We have become the victims of our own success. We are treating more patients but this means more cars on the site and it is proving difficult to find room for them" said Jo Finn, chief executive of the West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust.

In a newsletter to the trust's 2,500 members of staff, Miss Finn is asking people to follow the local council's 'green transport strategy' to help reduce the congestion. This includes using buses, sharing cars, walking or cycling to work whenever possible.

Miss Finn's appeal to staff follows discussions with St Edmundsbury Council who have agreed the hospital can provide a further 50 spaces on the 50 acre site in Hardwick Lane by April this year. The hospital already has about 900 car parking spaces.

As well as creating the extra spaces, the trust is hoping to ease congestion by turning its main front car park into a pay and display area, replacing the barrier controlled system.

This will ensure that every space is well used and will bring an end to the queues which form at the entry barrier during peak times, reducing access to other vehicles using the hospital's main entrance road.

"We are doing what we can to ease the problem in the short term," said Miss Finn, "and we are developing longer term schemes to improve the situation for patients and visitors, staff and local residents, with the help of the council.

"ln the meantime I would like to apologise to people who find it difficult to find a parking space at the hospital and to local residents who find cars parked outside their homes."

West Suffolk Hospital    Hardwick Lane    Bury St Edmunds    Suffolk IP33 2Q