Concerns raised over parking at Wrexham Maelor Hospital

Childminder Fiona Matthews has taken to social media after struggling to walk along Croesnewydd Road with a pushchair due to a considerable number of cars parked on the pavement.

"I was fortunate this day to only have two children in my care on this day", she said. "Most days I have a double buggy plus a toddler walking. This would have made the situation extremely dangerous for us!

Croesnewydd Road, Wrexham (Image: Fiona Matthews)

"I use this route because of the safety of the pedestrian crossing at the traffic lights. With cars parked as they were, we wouldn't have been able to get to the crossing!

"It would be nice if people thought about other users of the pavements before parking, but obviously the main problem is access to parking at the hospital."

In her post, she sympathised that the overcrowded hospital car park can cause added stress for patients rushing to appointments.

However, the images shared to social media have generated a concerned response from angered residents who expressed similar thoughts and experiences.

Several individuals described the parking situation as "chaos", while others declared it a "real problem" for wheelchair users.

Ian Donnelly, Integrated Health Care Director of Operations for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s East Integrated Health Community, said: “We understand how challenging car parking can be for our patients, visitors and staff and we do not underestimate the stress and anxiety it can cause.

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“We would encourage patients and visitors to travel by public transport if possible but we do understand this is not possible in all cases.

“We are currently exploring options across the site to improve parking issues and we are working with an external provider to help us with this. This is currently in the early stages, in the meantime we would urge all our staff, visitors and patients to park considerately on our site and in areas nearby the hospital.”

Cllr Mark Pritchard, lead member for finance and performance at Wrexham Council added: “Officers complete routine patrols across the county borough and if vehicles are seen at this location they issue PCNs to any vehicle parked in contravention of the restriction that is in place.

“The police could also issue FPNs if they deemed them to be parked dangerously or causing an obstruction.”