"What a shambles" - Chaos fears as major changes are announced to Royal Derby Hospital parking

An image of Royal Derby Hospital
-Credit: (Image: Royal Derby Hospital)


Fears have been voiced that major alterations to parking arrangements at the Royal Derby Hospital could cause chaos. The changes will pave the way for construction work to commence in October on a five-storey car park boasting 800 spaces.

The new facility, set to replace the existing Car Park Six, will feature 91 spaces dedicated to Blue Badge holders and several equipped with electric charging points. However, during its construction, parking availability on site will be significantly reduced.

Those planning to stay longer than 90 minutes are advised to use the complimentary park and ride service. This service, which is fully accessible, will be operational before the multi-storey car park's construction begins.

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A temporary car park will also be established on Kingsway Boulevard, just off the Kingsway roundabout near the retail park. Both the car park and bus service will be free of charge.

The University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHDB) initially intended to kickstart construction this spring, aiming for completion by April 2025. However, the project's completion date has now been pushed back to summer 2025.

For further details about hospital parking and alternative travel options to the hospital, read more here. Readers and residents have been expressing their frustrations in our comments section.

Commenter Gobbygoat writes: “Park and ride is all very well for able-bodied, healthy patients and visitors, but what about the elderly, unwell, people undergoing chemo, etc? Blue badges are not available for people with temporary disabilities or for people who are ill, so they can't use the disabled car parks. Not everyone has a friend or relative to drop them off, and taxis for anyone living outside Derby are very expensive.”

OliveH adds: “And how many places will the ‘park and ride' bus have compared to the number of patients arriving?”

Ggoat agrees: “The temporary park and ride car park will have 368 parking spaces. Will this be adequate for all the people who need to stay for more than 90 minutes, or will people turn up to find it already full? Then where are they meant to park?”

Agent99 thinks: “As if the Kingsway roundabout isn't already congested! The council were wrong in the first instance to refuse planning permission for a multi storey car park all those years ago. Now a decision has been made to inflict further havoc in an area where it is already chaotic at busy times. The cycle of endless bad decision making needs to be broken.”

DerbyBorn asks: “What about a compulsory purchase of some of the old houses between Manor Rd and the Hospital to give more land? Some are HMOs - that could be replaced with a more compact apartment block.”

Jedimaster82 retorts: “Because there's nothing wrong with the "old houses" - people's homes! In case you hadn't noticed there's also a housing crisis.” They go on to say: “It doesn't look like staff have been considered in this proposal much either, with some facing £20 a day taxis to do their job, or parking streets and streets away to walk back to in the winter.”

Fendola replies: “A real reason they struggle to get and retain staff and who can blame them? Most employees don’t have to pay to park at work and it should be the same for hospital employees.”

Onceproudtobebritish says: “90 mins stay is a joke! I have never been there for an appointment and been seen and back in my car in that amount of time. A&E was our last visit on a Sunday afternoon at 5pm, and we were there for 15hrs.”

MrChuffler agrees: “It's clearly not going to work for anyone that is forced (by the policies of the Royal) to visit the in-house pharmacy - the slowest and most incompetent department I've ever had the misfortune to interact with. Last time I was unfortunate enough to go there, it took 3 hours for them to fulfil a prescription for simple painkillers - also in the queue were nurses and a number of distressed elderly folk who were already worrying about the vast cost of their parking charges while they stood around waiting (due to the lack of seats).”

XxxSxxX writes: “So the car park at Kingsway closes at 6.30pm, yet new visiting times in the hospital are 8am-8pm? This really hasn’t been thought through.”

BlueLagoon_2 asks: “What is wrong with building a big multi-story car park on the big roundabout outside the main entrance with a tunnel for pedestrians to the main entrance?”

Derbyborn60 replies: “There is enough traffic congestion near the hospital, without adding more queuing traffic trying to get into the car park on the roundabout. why not build the multi-storey car park behind Aldi on the existing car park there?”

Slydogontheside adds: “Adequate parking should have been built when the hospital was being built. Explains a lot about Derby's planners.”

GRH says: “What a shambles. The residents of Derby deserve better.”

Will you be affected by the new parking layout at the hospital? What do you think the future solution should be ? Have your say in our comments section.