The view of hospital staff

As mentioned in 'background information', staff are more affected than most, some having to park up to a mile away from the hospital just to reach their place of work.

One of them, Nicola, asked me to start this investigation. She doesn't have Internet access so she hasn't been able to keep up to date with the developments, and wants to know if she will ever be able to park at the hospital.

"I am a volunteer at this hospital, and I find parking very difficult. Luckily my mum lives about a ten minute walk away, so I usually have to park my car at her house and walk up. It’s not convenient for anyone who comes to the hospital because the roads around it are full of parked cars, which makes driving around the area dangerous."

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Keep checking back for further developments.

Background information

Russells Hall Hospital is located in Dudley, West Midlands. It is the biggest hospital in Dudley after being extended in 2005 to include the maternity ward at Wordsley Hospital, which is now closed. The extension of the hospital has called for more parking, and despite some extra parking being provided it is still not enough. Surrounding streets are crammed with parked cars, making it dangerous for road users and especially buses that have to navigate around the congested and narrow streets. Staff too are affected, having to park up to one mile away to get to their place of work.

To combat this, a multi-storey car park was promised, however four years down the line nothing has happened.

The Express and Star recently reported that contractual talks were delayed, but work will 'hopefully' begin 'later on in the summer', according to Chief Executive of Dudley Hospitals NHS Trust Paul Farenden. It is now September, and still nothing.

The first major challenge for us at Help Me Investigate is to find out whether the contract has been agreed yet, and try to get a date for when (if) work will begin.