NHS staff will no longer be able to park in resident bays in the zone around the Royal Sussex Hospital.
All NHS staff and health and social workers were given access to parking passes at the beginning of lockdown which allowed them to use council spaces.
During lockdown, these were used by frontline staff with no issues and no complaints from the hospital’s neighbours in Kemp Town and the Bristol Estate .
But residents have complained that since lockdown ended and backoffice staff returned to work, the vast majority of cars parked in these streets have had NHS passes on the dashboard.
The hospital said this week it was trying to encourage staff not to use resident bays and only use pay and display spaces.
But this afternoon, Brighton and Hove City Council announced NHS passes would no longer be accepted in resident only bays from Tuesday, October 13.
Carole Donovan, a member of the Bristol Estate Community Association (BECA), said: “Hopefully it will relieve some of the pressure, but we will have to wait and see.
In a statement, the council said: “Throughout the pandemic, we have supported our NHS workers with free parking to support their hard work in the community, and this will continue.
We also have to balance the needs of resident permit holders living around the Royal Sussex County Hospital.
From Tuesday 13 October, NHS passes will no longer be accepted in resident only bays in Parking Zone H.
NHS workers displaying an official NHS parking pass can continue to park for free in Pay & Display and shared parking bays in Zone H and all other parking areas.
These badges can be obtained through the hospital’s Transport Bureau. ID badges and letters are no longer accepted as proof of eligibility.
We will be increasing enforcement to ensure vehicles are parking legally in Zone H.
The Royal Sussex County Hospital is working with the council to let staff know about the change to parking arrangements and to find a longer term solution that reduces parking pressures around the hospital.
You can find details of the zone boundaries on our parking webpages.
This will not help those of us who only have mixed use spaces near our homes. The demand will be greater than ever. Customers for local business will find it harder to get a parking space than it is already, as will visitors to the hospital. This scheme needs to end for all but truly essential key workers who have no other option. Admin staff should be using the nhs park & ride if they cannot walk or cycle.
All NHS workers are truly essential otherwise they wouldn’t be employed. What’s more important, people’s health or their ability to park after travelling a short distance to a local business in a car?
@Steve, this is about the staff using the car parks provided along with the Park and Ride. It is about allowing the people who actually live there and pay for permits somewhere to park outside their homes. They don’t have the option to use the NHS parking at the Marina.
What do you suggest people who live there should do with their cars?
@parking madness, park and ride is not attractive at this time because it means sharing a bus with others. It also adds considerably to journey times.
Buying a parking permit does not guarantee a space outside your home as I discovered many years ago and I don’t live near a hospital or buildings with several flats and the multiple car owners that brings with them. So I suggest people who live in such a location get used to the idea that there’s nowhere to park their car as per Brighton The Anthem (1997).
Ah – now it makes sense. So because *you* have problems parking then so should everyone suffer.
The workers have free parking provided a short distance away at the Marina. If they don’t want to get into the park and ride bus then it is only a short walk. Where are the locals supposed to park? They do not have an alternative.
If they’d decided to build a new hospital, on the outskirts of town, with ample parking this would not be an issue.
Instead they decided to revamp and rebuild in an place that’s ‘too tight’ with bad road access and almost zero parking provision.
Daft or wot.