Council orders redesign for new ambulance base in Galway

Galway City Council – Galway City Council has sent the HSE back to the drawing board with its plans for the long-awaited new city ambulance base on the grounds of Merlin Park Hospital.

Planners told the HSE to redesign the building to make it more attractive as they found it “quite uniform in design” and added that 78 car parking spaces would be excessive and with no justification.

Last April, the HSE sought permission for the new two-storey base with offices, rest rooms, shower areas, laundry rooms, quiet room and kitchen facilities on a site adjacent to the temporary base.

The building is planned to replace the existing temporary base which opened four years ago – and was only supposed to be in place for six to eight months – and has previously suffered a rat infestation and offered workers “brown and murky water” for showers.

According to the planning application, the entrance to the new unit will be improved with the upgrade of the junction at the main hospital road in the campus, including a new ‘blue light lane’, which will cause the loss of a number of ad hoc parking spaces.

The base building measures 613 square metres and would have canopied parking bays for 19 ambulances. On the ground floor are a computer room, 70 lockers, laundry room, shower rooms, open plan office, rest area, kitchenette and dining room, training equipment and major incident store. Upstairs will house offices, meeting rooms, a ‘quiet room’, ICT room and records store.

However, Galway City Council has told the HSE that 78 carparking spaces (excluding ambulance and 4×4 spaces) is excessive given the size and nature of the base. “No justification for same has been provided,” the Council said.

They asked that the level of parking be reduced and to provide cycle parking on site, and expressed concerns about the ‘uniform’ design of the building.
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