University Hospital Coventry Car Park

Resolving a parking shortage to ease congestion

Solving the parking issue was critical for University Hospital Coventry, with congestion regularly spilling onto the local road network, causing stress and inconvenience for thousands of staff, patients and visitors every year. Prime addressed several issues during the planning process to ensure its success, including flooding fears, traffic concerns and frustrated residents. The hospital had been crying out for a parking solution for several years, and Prime worked in partnership with University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust to deliver a project that was affordable and could solve its parking issues.

Due to a lack of spaces, staff began to park in the patient and visitor spaces, creating a bottleneck during the day. An 11-acre greenfield area east of the existing site was earmarked to provide a new 1,600-space surface level car park for staff, as realistic options to affordably expand on-site were limited.

Prime secured the unused farmland from private ownership early in the project. As the Trust didn’t have the capital to purchase it, we created an innovative revenue structure that gave the Trust a deliverable operating lease. While this purchase was a real game-changer for the Trust, the site was not without further challenges along the way.

Situated in a flood plain, there were highways concerns over additional traffic at Junction 2 of the M6. As local residents had already experienced previous flawed parking proposals, Prime were keen to ensure we could do what we could to ease traffic issues, rather than exacerbate them. After feedback from our public consultation, we changed the design to ensure all vehicles would access the new car park via the main hospital entrance, rather than a residential street.

Prime also worked hand-in-hand with Highways England and the Environment Agency, satisfying both parties on the profound benefits of the scheme. We teamed up with Coventry City Council and their flood engineers to designate the scheme ‘water compatible’, ensuring the site wouldn’t increase flood risk for third parties. In order to demonstrate this, Prime produced 40 different flood models that were submitted as part of the planning process.

By removing staff parking at the front of the hospital, the scheme creates a net gain of 750 spaces for patients and visitors that will transfer from staff use, meaning less stress for patients as they will be able to concentrate on their treatment and getting better.