BRI hospital multi-storey car park plan 'detrimental'
- Published
The BRI wants to knock down 36 flats to make way for an 800-space car park
Proposals for an 800-space multi-storey car park for visitors and patients at the Bristol Royal Infirmary has sparked both protest and support.
The hospital wants to demolish 36 flats on Eugene Street for the hub which will also have 400 bicycle spaces.
Paula Clarke from the hospital trust said: "We feel it's vital to respond to this need."
Opponents of the plans say the trust should instead open up its 140-space staff car park to visitors.
'Ill conceived'
The University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust estimates that each day 1,200 people with mobility or health problems struggle to get to hospital and rely on cars.
There have been 239 objections and 169 letters of support so far.
Kevin Blake, from the West of England Centre for Inclusive Living group said: "I'm a fit and healthy middle-aged man who uses a wheelchair and I cannot get up the slope from the BRI up to Trenchard St to park there.
"I cannot wheel up that slope."
The nearest car park is at Trenchard Street, which is halfway up a steep hill and has 936 spaces.
There are other car parks around Broadmead and Cabot Circus but are about half a mile (1km) away.
The flats along Eugene Street will be knocked down to make way for the car park, if the plans are approved
Labour councillor Paul Smith, who represents central ward in Bristol, said: "We accept that the hospital needs to improve its car parking, it's denied its main car park to patients keeping it for staff.
"It sold off a site across the road, the old BRI site for student flats, which could have been used to meet this need.
"Their application breaches 23 of the council's planning policies, it's ill-conceived and it's responding to a problem that the hospital has failed to solve for many years."
The trust says it did consider the previous BRI site for car parking but ruled it out due to the one-way restrictions and the busy bus station.
The plans are expected to be refused by Bristol City Council and will be debated on Wednesday, 13 March.