UHG parking plan ‘way behind schedule’

A plan to increase the amount of parking spaces for use by the public at a city hospital, by taking parking spaces away from staff, is way behind schedule, health authorities have confirmed.

Eighteen months ago, the Health Service Executive (HSE) West said it was introducing “targeted measures” to reduce the ration of staff/public parking spaces at University Hospital Galway. At the time, the HSE said the ratio of its car parking space was 80:20 in favour of staff.

It pledged to reduce the ratio, through targeted measures, to reach 60:40 in the first 18 months of the plan, and to 50:50 over the course of three years. It had hoped that the massive State investment in bus lanes along the Seamus Quirke Road might entice staff out of their cars and into buses and bicycles. It hasn’t happened, yet, however.

Yesterday, the HSE conceded that the target of 60:40 staff/public parking within the 18 months timeframe has not been met.

It said that the plan to reach the staff/parking ratio of 60:40 on UHG was “based on the relocated car park being built by the Summer of 2012 however planning permission for this build was only received on December 31, 2012”.

For more on this story, see this week’s Connacht Sentinel