Browse Sections

• Education
• James Chapman-Kelly
• Neil Roland
• Mancunian candidate
• Special reports

Row over £3M Christie car park plan

Jennifer Thomson
13/ 3/2008

MORE than 50 angry Withington residents attended a meeting at Christie’s Hospital, discussing proposals to build a £3 million multi-storey car park at the site.

Residents complained that unless charges for the new car park were scrapped, staff - who fail to make use of the existing available space - would continue to block nearby roads.

The car park, which would provide an extra 150 spaces for both staff and patients, is due to be built in March 2009, alongside the existent car park on Tatton Grove.

Helen Petrou, who attended the meeting, has lived on Parkville Road with her husband and two children for the past 30 years. She said the problem had escalated since the erection of the Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre four years ago.

"Every day, from 7am until 7pm the road is constantly blocked from staff who park here, it’s the same people day in, day out. I chose to live on a quiet street but every morning we are woken by the sound of car doors slamming. There can be up to 100 cars parked on Parkville Road alone - I counted nearly 200 parked cars between Mayville Drive and Ferndene Road.

"Parking at the hospital needs to be free, otherwise things will just get worse."

Ian Moston, director of finance and business planning for Christie’s said it was ‘not NHS best practice’ to abolish charges completely and that they were already among the lowest in the UK for a specialist hospital.

Roger Spencer, chief operating officer at the hospital, said: "It is beyond our capability to count number of cars parked in surrounding streets, our responsibility is to staff and patients."

Currently lowest grade staff pay £15 a month, while the highest grade staff pay £26 a month to park at the hospital.

Mr Moston claimed it was a lack of space which forced staff to park elsewhere and spoke of several new measures aimed at reducing the burden, including a car sharing scheme and additional cycling facilities, as well as the huge planned investment for the multi-storey.

But residents insisted the problem was down to staff who refuse to pay the charges.

"The doctors and nurses at Christie's do a fantastic job, but nobody is going to pay for something they can get for free," said Mrs Petrou.

East Didsbury Councillor Tony Parkinson called for ‘stronger moral pressure’ to be applied on hospital employees who park in the neighbouring roads.

Another idea which has been proposed is the introduction of residents-only parking in the affected streets.