Multi-storey car park approved for Dorset County Hospital
Councilors vote unanimously in favour of plans for new Dorset County Hospital car park.
It will allow the hospital to expand it's Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit as part of £62.5 million improvements.
Planning officers recommended the councillors to refuse the plans, on the grounds the car park is too large and not in keeping with the surrounding conservation area.
They said the building would be visible from many locations all over the town and would be one of the tallest buildings in the town too.
But councillors said the social and economic benefits of the works outweigh the harm to the landscape.
Nick Johnson, Director of Strategy, Transformation and Partnerships said it will have a huge impact on clinicians:
"It makes a real difference to how they're going to be able to deliver care for our patients.
"They've been working within constrained space for many, many years now and actually they've been doing a really fantastic job.
"They're some of the best out there, but giving them the space to deliver the top quality care that we want to deliver for all of our patients is going to be a huge thing for them."
The building will add another 695 spaces to their current capacity, bringing total capacity at the hospital to 1060.
It's hoped the hospital will be able to start buildling the mutli-storey car park on the former Damer's School field site within the next few months.
It's set to take 15 months, and all in all work the whole project including expansions to the Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit should be finished by 2025.