First-look at Dorset County Hospital's new multi-storey car park

The car park is now in use, but only for staff, easing parking pressure on the rest of the site for hospital visitors and patients.

Public opening will follow soon, once parking machines, barriers and other minor technical issues are completed.

Once fully operational the new system will allow patients and visitors to pay on exit –  only being charged for the time they have been parked. The system also gives more options to pay with payment machines taking coins and notes as well as credit and debit cards.

The building is well laid out with gentle and wide slopes, a lack of pillars and better than average-sized parking bays with clearly marked pedestrian areas and plenty of CCTV security.

Initial reactions from staff are said to be entirely positive although residents living nearby are adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach to what they might expect it terms of noise and night-time lights.

The hospital and the car park construction team, Willmott Dixon, have already responded to neighbour’s comments about the need for roof-top lighting and for weeks now the top floor lights have been switched off.

The building, set into the hill on a corner site at the bottom of Williams Avenue and Damers Road, will allow for future expansion on the rest of the hospital site, including a larger accident and emergency department.

The project is part of a £62.5m government investment to improve services at the county town hospital.

Twelve electric vehicle charging points are included among the 654 parking spaces with the capacity to expand to 68 in the future.

While there are no dedicated disabled spaces in the multi-storey car park, there is a new large disabled parking area closer to the main hospital entrance in addition to other disabled spaces by the other wings. There are still dedicated spaces for patients receiving chemotherapy, radiotherapy and dialysis, as well as concessions for some visitors. Parking charges remain the same.

The new seven-floor building towers over neighbouring homes, the adjoining children’s centre and businesses on the other side of Damers Road.

It won unanimous support from Dorset Council when its area planning committee approved the project in September last year, despite some opposition from residents who claimed it would be out of place in a town and might cause additional traffic problems at the junctions either end of Williams Avenue.

Dorchester town councillors at the time congratulated the hospital for its design and attempts to minimise the impact of the building while saving as many trees as possible.

The new car park includes features to support local biodiversity, including bird boxes, hedgehog nesting boxes and insect friendly foliage. A wildlife corridor has also been created around the car park, planted with hedgerows and wildflowers the corridor provides a buffer zone between vehicle movement and wildlife.

Building work has remained roughly on target, despite the impact of Covid and global shortages of some building materials.

The main faces of the building include murals featuring Corfe Castle, Durdle Door, and Portland Bill Lighthouse, chosen by the local community.

Parking concessions are available on the site in special circumstances: fir details see –  https://www.dchft.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/getting-here/parking/

Anyone with queries or problems can contact the Transport Team on 01305 255688 or email CarParkingEnquiries@dchft.nhs.uk  

How the barrier system will work when open to public: 

When patients and visitors drive in at the Williams Avenue entrance they will take a ticket from one of the barriers and it will lift. The system has number plate recognition software which will note your registration as you enter.

Before leaving the site, drivers can pay for the time they have been parked at the new payment stations with cash or card.

The barrier will lift automatically as you drive out, the system recognising your number plate and will know that you have have paid.

Drivers who are dropping off and picking up patients should still take a ticket, but will not need to pay if on site less than 20 minutes. If this takes longer than 20 minutes through no fault of their own, they just need to buzz the help button at the barrier and the transport team can talk to them and lift the barrier.

Blue Badge holders can still park for free, in the new dedicated disabled parking area in front of North Wing, or any of the disabled spaces near other main entrances. Blue Badge holders should still take a ticket on entering the site, but don’t need to visit a payment machine before they leave – they will be able to scan their badge at the barrier on the way out so it lifts and they are not charged.  

Pics All by TB apart from main view of entrance and exit which are courtesy of DCH and should be credited as such, if use (both in bright sunshine)

The multi-storey car park at Dorset County Hospital 

Portland Bill mural as seen from the Children’s Centre

Typical floor layout

The new parking payment machines

Views of entrance and exit – courtesy of Dorset County Hospital

New barriers under construction in Williams Avenue