Multi-storey car parks to be built at Sandwell and City hospitals
New multi-storey car parks will be built at two hospitals after being given the go-ahead by planning chiefs.
Hundreds more parking spaces will be created at Sandwell and Birmingham City hospitals to ease parking problems.
The plans, which were first revealed by the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust two years ago, have now been signed off by both councils.
A four-storey car park will be built at Sandwell Hospital while a six-storey block will go up at City Hospital on Dudley Road, increasing capacity by around 1,000 across the two sites.
It is hoped the new multi-storeys will put an end to parking problems at both sites, which have sometimes resulted in staff parking on nearby side roads to the frustration of residents.
A new health centre is also being built at Sandwell Hospital, meaning more parking spaces are needed at the site.
A former accommodation block will be bulldozed to make way for the new car park.
They are being built despite the fact the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital will open in two years' time to become the main healthcare unit in the area. Both Sandwell and City hospitals will then be scaled down.
When the plans were first revealed, the trust's director of estates Alan Kenny said the car parks were needed as "demand exceeds the car parking spaces that we have".
A planning statement in relation to the Sandwell car park said: "Construction of a new health centre is under way within the hospital grounds, to provide new premises for Carters Green Medical Centre and Lyndon Health Centre.
"The proposed multi-storey car park is a requirement of the new health centre planning permission to provide the long-term parking solution for staff working at the new health centre.
"In addition, consolidation of existing hospital parking provision is required to improve parking efficiency and ease of access to spaces, to help alleviate on-street parking in the vicinity of the hospital."
