Stockport NHS Foundation Trust is about to introduce new measures on improving parking at their hospital to help make it sustainable for the future.

The new measures will aim to improve parking accessibility and safety on the site.

Earlier this year, the trust ran a series of engagement sessions and surveys to find out from colleagues, patients and the public about how they felt about car parking on the hospital. site.

Over the course of the engagement, they spoke to over 1,000 members of staff, patients and members of the public, in addition to further online surveys. These comments were considered when introducing the new improvement schemes.

This is just the first phase of a series of developments to make the hospital site safer and easier to park.

The new measures will include:

• Parking enforcement. Parking enforcement officers are being reintroduced on the hospital site from October 2025.  UKCPM officers will patrol the site to ensure that cars are parked only in marked bays and display the correct ticket or permit.
• Barriered car parks for staff. From October, permit holders will access our staff car parks using their staff ID badge. Only staff with a valid permit will be able to access barriered car parks.
• Criteria based parking. New staff members and staff who are applying for a permit for the first time will be allocated permits based on a number of criteria, by filling out a simple form. Criteria will be based on factors including how close they live to the site.
• Parking alternatives. Reminders are being provided about parking alternatives away from site and public transport options. This includes signposting to the park and ride facility, and other car parks, in Hazel Grove.

Parking enforcement will initially be introduced with warning notices. This will be for the first two weeks to enable staff and visitors to get used to the new scheme and restrictions across the site. Full enforcement across the site will begin two weeks later. The parking charge notice (PCN) rate is £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 14 days. This is in line with other Greater Manchester NHS organisations.

These enforcement measures will help to address any issues from those not paying for parking, or parking poorly, to ensure that visitors and staff park appropriately and safely across the site.

Gareth Hughes, Director of Estates and Facilities for Stockport NHS Foundation Trust said; “We know that car parking can be an emotive issue for staff, patients and our local community, but we also recognise the difficulties people have when navigating and parking at our hospital. The changes we are making have safety at the heart of them, so that we can provide a better experience for those attending our site. With 5,900 people working on site, and large numbers of patients and carers visiting us every day, we need to ensure our site is safe and parking remains a sustainable option. We hope these new measures will help us with this aim.”

For more information on parking, including alternative methods of traveling to the hospital site, see the information page on the trust website.