Extra spaces aim to ease parking problems at South Shields hospital

South Tyneside District Hospital has been granted permission to create the spots on its site in Harton Lane, South Shields.

The application, which was submitted to South Tyneside Council in December, has been given the go-ahead.

It is hoped that the new spaces will help staff, who often have to park in neighbouring streets due to lack of spaces, and also visitors.

South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust employs 4,300 people and caters for 427 inpatient beds.

The existing car park provides 942 car parking bays, including disabled parking bays.

Michelle Arrowsmith, the trust’s chief operating officer, said: “We are very pleased at the decision by South Tyneside Council to grant planning permission for an additional 39 car parking spaces at South Tyneside District Hospital.

“For some time now we have been looking at ways to increase the parking available on the site, which gets extremely busy at certain times.

“This leads to congestion as visitors and staff experience difficulties in finding a space and they often resort to parking in neighbouring streets, causing local residents to complain.

“We hope that the extra car parking provision will go some considerable way to solving these problems.”

The planning application states that the new spots will be on land to the boundary of the hospital site at Harton Lane.

It read: “It is proposed to locate the additional car parking on land to the boundary of the existing hospital site adjacent to Harton Lane.

“Due to the nature of the site, and location of certain groups of existing trees, the proposed layout has been designed to maximise the number of useable car parking bays possible.

“Access is via the existing hospital road network from an existing stretch of road off the current parking area.

“Tarmac is proposed to be used as the surface for the car park.”