A planned park and ride in Dundee will ”greatly assist” efforts to ease parking pressure at Ninewells Hospital, an NHS Tayside official has said.
The £3 million scheme will see a 400-space car park created off Riverside Avenue. A date has yet to be set for work to start, but regional transport body TACTRAN is in talks with Dundee City Council over the detailed design.
Parking at Ninewells has been a contentious issue for several years. Staff and other hospital users often park in surrounding streets rather than pay for a space, but there can also be congestion in the car parks at peak times.
The head of site at Ninewells has now told West End councillor Fraser Macpherson that park and ride is set to be part of the long-term solution, saying: ”We fully believe that this will greatly assist with the continuing parking pressures.”
Responding to questions from Mr Macpherson, the spokesman said the hospital has been experiencing its seasonal pressure on parking, and staff do monitor demand with car park contractor Vinci Park.
He said: ”I have confidence that the changes we made a few years ago to protect car parks closest to the hospital is continuing to provide the desired effect and by and large these car parks numbers five, six and seven do indeed turn over on a regular and frequent basis during the day due to the four-hour time restriction control.
”Similar time controls in the disabled car park area also continues to allow ease of access for disabled drivers arriving at site throughout the day.”
He added: ”In terms of staff, we are continuing to review our site travel planning approach with efforts to encourage higher use of public transport, given that we have an excellent bus terminus at our main entrance.
”Additionally we will experience an increase in the use of bicycle transport by staff as is normal once winter is over. Also at this time of year, there is a generally low uptake of staff annual leave but this increases from February onwards which will reduce the pressure experienced at this time of year.”
The official said extra on-site parking is not in NHS Tayside’s plan.
The council, supported by TACTRAN, also does not think additional parking could be supported from a planning perspective.
The spokesman said: ”In reviewing our travel plan with support from TACTRAN we will continue to focus efforts to try and encourage staff in particular to make higher use of what is already a very good public transport network in and around Dundee, along with further promotion of walking and cycling to work, which also has a health benefit for staff.”