Patients could soon find it easier to reach Taunton hospital

Musgrove Park Hospital, located in the western part of Taunton, is currently undergoing a multi-million-pound upgrade to improve the quality of treatment being provided on site across its various departments.

Stagecoach recently took over the operation of Taunton’s park and ride service, which serves the hospital from both the Gateway and Silk Mills sites – with Somerset Council stating it was pleased with the new operator’s work to date.

The council has now confirmed it is looking at other ways to improve access to the hospital, including improvements to a key walking and cycling route linking it to the town centre.

It also revealed that plans for a second multi-storey car park within the hospital grounds are expected to be voted on by its planning committee west later in the year.

How the new multi-storey could look. (Image: BDP)

Stagecoach South West officially took over the park and ride service from Buses of Somerset on February 12, with its double deckers operating both both sites every 20 minutes between 6am and 8pm on weekdays, with a slightly later start on Saturdays.

The cost of park and ride tickets is being fixed at £1 for a single until March 31, 2025, with the council subsidising the cost of tickets as part of its £11.9m bus service improvement plan (which is funded by central government).

A council spokesman said: “The new park and ride contract is going well. We made some minor timetable changes on 15 April just to improve punctuality at certain times of the day.

“Patronage remains very good and the feedback we are now getting is that the new service has now settled in well and reliability is good.”

The council and its predecessors have been exploring ways to improve access to the hospital site on foot or by bicycle, with the former Somerset County Council publishing the Taunton local cycling and walking infrastructure plan in February 2022.

The plan laid out which walking and cycling routes across the town could be improved or extended using either central government funding, contributions from housing developments or grants from third parties.

Somerset West and Taunton Council subsequently identified 11 routes which it believed should be prioritised for improvement – including the route between Goodlands Gardens and Henley Road, which connects to the hospital via Parkfield Drive.

The route currently runs from the riverside green space past the former Tangier gasworks on the A3807 Castle Street, skirting around the town’s Tesco supermarket, Longrun Meadow, the Castle School and the University Centre Somerset off the busy A38 Wellington Road.

While much of this route already benefits from wide, level, segregated walking and cycling lanes, the section nearest the hospital – along Henley Road and Parkfield Drive – has narrow pavements with no dedicated cycle provision along the predominantly residential streets.

This section in turn forms part of the LCWIP ‘green route’, which the council eventually intends will run east-west across Taunton from the new housing development in Norton Fitzwarren to the Nexus 25 employment zone via the town centre.

The council recently secured around £400,000 from Active Travel England for the design of new or improved cycle infrastructure – but has not revealed where this money will be targeted.

There is limited capital funding available to build any additional cycle routes, save for a previous £1.5m grant from Active Travel England, which is being directed at the A39 between Carhampton and Dunster.

A spokesman said: “We will explore a range of funding options including developer contributions as well as funding from government as and when streams become available.”

Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton was one of 40 hospitals which were to be rebuilt, enhanced or replaced as part of the new hospitals programme (NHP) instituted by Boris Johnson’s government in late-2020.

Delivering a new car park is part of the conditions for the new £87m surgical centre, which is currently under construction following the Treasury’s approval of the final business case in January 2021.

Patients and staff can currently use the Cedars multi-storey car park, operated by Q-Park, which opened at the southern edge of the hospital campus in October 2006.

The Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, teased plans for a second multi-storey car park in early-February, providing hundreds of additional spaces for staff, patients, carers and visitors.

The plans were formally submitted in late-March with the new car park expected to provide up to 307 new spaces (including 140 space which have been lost through previous stages of the hospital’s redevelopment).

The proposed car park (which will include new public artworks) will be built at the south-east corner of the hospital site, replacing the current Duchess 2 car park (near the day surgery) which is predominantly used by staff.

The car park will be accessible on foot or by bicycle using the existing cycle route on Hoveland Lane, which extends to the south along Galmington Road and runs all the way to the eastern edge of the ongoing Orchard Grove housing development.

Due to the scale and significance of the project, the car park plans will need to be determined in public by the council’s planning committee west, which handles major planning applications in the former Somerset West and Taunton area.

The council said the plans would take “up to ten weeks” to proceed, and that a decision would be taken by this committee some time before the end of the year.

The trust said that, if planning permission were secured, it would work with the council and other relevant partners to minimise disruption to patients and visitors while construction took place.