ALEX Hollingsworth says: “The council’s planning policies for the hospital sites in Headington aim to limit the amount of parking on site, because additional parking will generate more traffic on local streets that are already congested.”

Really? At the moment there are queues to use car parking at the JR. Sometimes they tail right back to the mini roundabout at the entrance on Headley Way. There could be an ambulance with sirens and blue lights flashing with a patient needing urgent treatment, but due to the queues they cannot reach the emergency room in time.

Now I don’t sit in the council chambers and nor would I want to. But do they ever seem to think of a way of trying to alleviate this problem?

Obviously the councillors would prefer people to use the present park and rides.

But if you are less poorly, elderly or a parent with young children you are going to want to be nearer to the hospital than a park and ride.

Has no councillor ever thought of an area that is not in use for anything and would have the capacity to hold maybe a minimum of 750 cars and make a purpose-built park and ride for the hospitals? This would take a lot of planning because it would be for hospital outpatients, visitors and even staff.

It would need to be manned by security who would have access to the names of inpatients so that visitors could prove they are visiting and inpatients would have an appointment letter. This would take a lot of planning but effectively it could work.

No doubt the council will say “where?” but if they offered to put some student accommodation in (with their own parking facilities) then I’m sure the council would find a suitable site. Then Rodney Rose and others should be able to make their appointments with more ease.

B GIBBS
Hanney Road, Steventon