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Hospital carpark upgrade planned

Posted on November 18, 2009, 8:08am and updated on November 19, 2009 at 8:05 am

The State Government has announced it will extend the carpark at Mount Gambier Hospital to alleviate the shortfall at the public health facility.

This follows people being forced to park on grass areas, squeeze into non-carparking areas around the busy hospital or park on adjacent streets.

Hospital carparkOver winter it is understood a number of cars became bogged on the muddy grass areas.

Mount Gambier City Council will undertake the works, but the cost will be refunded to the local government body over a number of years.

Council has been lobbying for more carparks at the site since the new hospital was built more than 10 years ago.

Health Minister John Hill said council would carry out the six-week program of works.

The existing staff carpark at the rear of the hospital will be extended, bringing the total number of parking spaces available onsite to 406.

“This is another example of the Rann Government’s commitment to investing in our hospitals and the people who use them,” Mr Hill said yesterday.

“Staff, patients and visitors will all benefit from the extra space that this work will create.”

Lower South East Health Service director David Walshaw said extending the staff carpark at the rear of the hospital would provide much-needed capacity.

“Extending the staff carpark at the rear of the hospital is an excellent outcome for all hospital users, because it frees up 65 more carpark spaces for patients and visitors,” Mr Walshaw said.

Work will start in January 2010 and weather permitting, the project should be finished by late February.

Meanwhile Mount Gambier Mayor Steve Perryman welcomed the announcement, but claimed the issue had been a “bugbear” of council for a number of years.

He claimed the hospital had been deficient in carparking space since it was first built.

“The site has always been deficient of carparking space, but it is not the responsibility of council. Council feels very strongly about the lack of carparking capacity in that area,” Mr Perryman said.

He also called on the government to ensure sufficient carparking capacity if further development occurred on the site.

Mr Perryman said council’s planning authorities had no say about the number of carparking spaces at the site because development applications were not determined by council, but by the State Government’s Development Assessment Commission.

He said there was a similar issue with the lack of carparking spaces at education facilities across the city.

Mr Perryman claimed government facilities did not have to meet carparking requirements that private developers were forced to under council’s development rules.

“The extension to the hospital carpark will not come at a cost to ratepayers,” he said.

“The Department of Health (Health SA) will pay back the money over five years.

“Council is pleased to play a part in providing a solution.”

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