A new multi-storey car park is set to open soon benefitting thousands of staff members at the University Hospitals of the North Midlands (UHNM) NHS Trust.
The 1,680-space staff car park, which has cost £23 million including the purchase of the land it is on, was officially opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday (24 April) and will be available for employees to use from Tuesday, 7 May.
It has been built at the former Grindley Hill Court on Hilton Road, in Newcastle-under-Lyme, and will replace the existing staff parking spaces provided at the Royal Infirmary and Central Outpatients Departments sites.
The two sites have been used as a temporary parking measure for staff, who then had to walk or get transport to work at the Royal Stoke University Hospital.
The Trust chose to develop car parking on the Grindley Hill Court site because it was considered the best local option for future expansion of hospital services given its location next to the main hospital site.
This leaves the way for the former Royal Infirmary to be developed for local housing and community services.
Lorraine Whitehead, Director of Estates, Facilities and PFI at the Trust, said: “We are thrilled to be able to open our new car park which improves NHS facilities for staff, enables better car parking for our patients and allows for the redevelopment of the Royal Infirmary site.”
UHNM Chief Executive Tracy Bullock officially opened the car park during the ceremony, which was attended by representatives from UHNM, contractors IHP, Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s planning department and local residents.
She added: “I am delighted to officially open our new staff car park. If we have got staff parking in the right place, it helps ease the burden on parking spaces for our patients and visitors and supports our local residents also.
“I would like to thank all teams involved in bringing this project in on time and within budget but also to our local planners and residents for their patience and willingness to work with us.”
UHNM employs 13,000 staff across its two sites.
The new car park has five storeys, is almost 20 metres high and its frame is made of 1,300 tonnes of steel.
If you laid every brick on the project on top of each other, the pile would be taller than the world’s tallest structure, the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai.
