They have now resolved to take action.

Council will write to the state government and hospital management over the need for more car spaces around Armidale Rural Referral Hospital.

At Monday’s meeting, concern was voiced over the already dire state of parking around the hospital, with fears it will worsen when expansion of the hospital is completed.

Some councillors suggested the hospital might need to look at building a lot for car spaces in Lambert Park as a solution to the problem. 

Jenny Bailey, who is also the chairwoman of Armidale’s access advisory committee, suggested Council should lobby the state government to do more to fix parking. 

One of the biggest concerns with the current lack of car spaces was how it affected hospital workers, she said. 

“I know for a fact that staff have issues with parking, 

particularly if they are working an afternoon shift,” Cr Bailey said.

“Quite often then they will have trouble finding parking near the hospital, and they 

end up parked a long way 

away.

“When their shift ends in the middle of the night they end up running the gauntlet and putting their security at risk when they are returning to their car.”

The hospital had tried to offer a solution, with spaces for staff in the hospital grounds, however, signs were often ignored by drivers and the initiative was difficult to police.

Another issue was a lack of parking spaces close to essential services for those living with a disability, such as the hospital’s hydrotherapy pool. 

Even if a person using the pool was able to park their car right outside the hospital, there was still a 50 to 100 metre walk to the facility, Cr Bailey said.

“You have got to go right around the back of the hospital,” she said. “If you don’t have any mobility that is huge.”

One solution was to convert some of the land 

in Lambert Park not used 

for cricket grounds into car parking spaces. 

The ideal location would be the stretch of park on the Rusden and O’Dell Street side, Cr Bailey said.

“You could take out the shrubs and turn it into two 

hour parking for visitors,” she said.

Plans for the $60 million redevelopment of the hospital were published in October. 

The hospital expansion will include a relocated emergency department, four new operating theatres, a new in-patient ward and an expanded critical care unit. The upgrade will also see the  construction of a new four-storey building, which will link each floor of the hospital’s existing three-storey building.

Minor work towards the refurbishment will commence in December.

Work will include the demolition of some existing buildings before major construction starts in July next year.