University Hospitals Bristol has appealed against the Council’s refusal in March 2019 of the planning application to build an 800+ spaces multi-storey car park in Marlborough Street. The Society has made a statement to support the Council’s reasons to refuse which included the impact of another major multi-storey car park on the traffic congestion and air quality of the local roads and the substantial loss of invaluable, affordable city centre homes in Eugene Street.
The Society is sympathetic to the Hospital’s wish to improve patient access but a critical factor for the Society is that the proposal does not deliver the patient benefits that the Trust claims. Emergency patients or patients with impaired mobility can be delivered by car directly to the drop-off point at one of the Hospital’s main entrances. A new car park would only add another car park to the several local multi-storey car parks. The Hospital Shuttle Bus service is free of charge and serves the entrances of all the hospitals. The Shuttle Bus currently stops at Cabot Circus car park. The proposal would merely add another multi-storey car park to the bus’s existing itinerary. Cabot Circus has substantially easier access from arterial roads than the proposed multi-storey car park.
The Trust has other choices to improve patient access. Other city centre hospitals (for example, Exeter and Winchester) have chosen to promote bespoke hospital park and ride access.
The full Civic Society statement to the Planning Inspectorate. The Appeal Statement by the UHB NHS Foundation Trust.
John Frenkel
johnfrenkel5@gmail.com
The Society’s response implies that the current shuttle bus arrangement is sufficient for most non-emergency uses. It plainly isn’t – it doesn’t run in the evening, and during the day it may run half-hourly or hourly depending on staff availability. The Exeter Park-and-ride service runs every 15 minutes during the day, and finishes at around 22.00; the Winchester service is more frequent but finishes earlier.
If the current Bristol shuttle is presented as the alternative, then for most people a car park next to the BRI will seem a much more attractive prospect. If the frequency, reliability and finishing time of the shuttle were improved, it might be a different story.