Letter: Support the Royal Surrey’s Plan for a Multi-storey Car Park

Published on: 18 Jul, 2021
Updated on: 18 Jul, 2021

Illustrative view of the proposed car park.

From: Ray Rogers

Governor at the Royal Surrey County Hospital

As a governor at the Royal Surrey Hospital I have undertaken many ‘patient chats’ to capture their experience and to feed that back to appropriate Department heads. Patient experience has almost always been very good but it has been the difficulty of parking that has been the concern over and over again.

Now there is a chance to do something about it. The hospital has done all that it can to encourage use of public transport:

there is an electronic display of bus arrivals in the main entrance near the Costa Coffee;
it has sought to have Park & Ride buses stop at the hospital;
it has encouraged staff to cycle to work and parking spaces are not available to staff living in the GU1 and GU2 postcodes;
many staff now work from home;
a number of activities have been moved to community sites and Buryfields;
many outpatient appointments are conducted virtually (where appropriate).

But still patients and their carers struggle to find a space adding to an already stressful experience and worries of missing appointments.

For years the hospital has sought to build a multi-storey car park but it has never materialised. However, at last, a planning application has been submitted to Guildford Borough Council.

The application number is 21/P/00817. I very much hope that current and past patients and the wider public will formally support the application to ensure it gets granted.

To support email PlanningEnquiries@guildford.gov.uk put “Support 21/P/00817” in the subject heading and in the text and say why you support it. Sign off with your address and postcode.

Responses to Letter: Support the Royal Surrey’s Plan for a Multi-storey Car Park

Alan Bathurst Reply

July 19, 2021 at 6:46 am

I support this application as long as the charges for parking are reasonable and that the revenue from such charges is returned to the NHS, not some parking company.
Roy Fiander Reply

July 19, 2021 at 8:38 am

As a local resident, I wish to see this car park succeed. I am fed up with not being able to find a spot to park almost every time we have to go to the hospital.

My wife has a brain injury and a heart condition that needs constant monitoring. So with is in mind and thinking of those with a lot more people worse off than myself I feel the university is being both very short-sighted and selfish. They should stop thinking of themselves.
Elizabeth Stacey Reply

July 19, 2021 at 9:56 am

I fully support this plan, but how will they make sure it is for hospital use and not for the use of the Research Park or Surrey University?
Ian Dance Reply

July 19, 2021 at 4:06 pm

I would very much support this plan. I believe that this should have been done when the hospital was being constructed, not many years later. I worked there in Pathology from the opening of the hospital and it was quite clear then that the parking was not enough, even at that stage. I think when it was requested at the time the objection was that it would be a distraction to traffic on the A3.
Alan Morris Reply

July 28, 2021 at 10:21 am

Having read the two planning applications in 2017 and 2020 by the Royal Surrey I believe that previous responders are mistaken in their understanding. The application is for a 598 multi-storey car park to be built for the benefit of the hospital staff and not for the public. It is proposed to be built on an existing site in Rosalind Franklin Close remote from the hospital site itself and will replace the existing level car park for 400 cars.

While I support the hospital in its need to provide adequate parking for hospital staff it does nothing to overcome the obviously congested and inadequate parking provided for the general public visiting the the sick or attending outpatient clinics