Firm asks to drop Hull hospital car park improvements

The car park on Fountain Street next to the Hull Royal Infirmary is operated by Bank Park

The operator of a car park at Hull Royal Infirmary is asking to drop requirements to improve facilities.

An application lodged with the city council by Bank Park for the Fountain Street car park asks to remove planning obligations and allow it to continue to operate beyond August 2024.

The firm said requirements to mark out and light the car park did not take into account future plans at the site.

The area has been set aside for the redevelopment of the hospital.

A masterplan to develop the infirmary unveiled in November 2022 has part of the Fountain Street site earmarked as a multi-storey car park, with the remainder as unspecified "potential future development".

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Bank Park's application stated the Fountain Street site has and would continue to have an important role to play in providing parking.

But it added the master plan and future redevelopment meant the days of the existing car park were numbered.

The company's application seeks to remove a condition requiring improvements so that the car park could continue to operate until at least 2027.

The site has been earmarked for redevelopment in the hospital's master plan

"Decisions on previous applications on this site have reflected a desire to have a surfaced, marked out, lit car park," the application said.

"However, laudable though this aim may be it does not take account of the fact that when a car park has an unknown future, the operator is not going to make a large investment in improvements.

"Using resources and energy to carry out work which will be removed in the near future runs counter to the principles of sustainability.

"Renewal of the planning permission would assist the aim of the plan to provide adequate parking, but would not thwart the longer term aim to redevelop the site with a multi-storey car park and an unspecified built development."