This Committee meets four times a year with members of the Royal Stoke University Hospital to discuss matters of importance to residents which affect them during this continuing time of great change in the area, which has generated many problems and upset, which the Committee has sought to alleviate, or at least keep the community abreast of of future changes. The information obtained at these meetings which take place just before a Public Meeting are reported at those meetings and can be found under the Public Meeting reports at Constitution and Committee/Public Meeting Reports.
The foundation of the Association began with the decision of the Hospital to charge for parking which caused local streets to be used for parking instead, to the annoyance and inconvenience of local residents without off street parking themselves who found them selves unable to park near their homes. Parking remains an issue, particularly because of inadequate parking facilities for staff, outpatients and visitors on site at the Hospital which continues to spread the problem further and further from the hospital, though this is often caused by a refusal to pay for parking when such parking is available.
Since the concentration of clinical services on the former City General site, the Association has watched carefully the plans for the future development of the Infirmary and Central Outpatients sites, which now provide car parking for staff, who are provided with a shuttle bus service between the car parks and the Hospital, a service which has itself given rise to many complaints, particularly the congestion it causes in Ashlands Road. An issue relating to the opening of a temporary car park on the now demolished Central Outpatients site was that of intrusive lighting which caused annoyance to residents in Longfield Road.
Although the use of the temporary COPD car park which houses some 300 cars is due to end on 30 June 2019, there is as yet no firm plans as to where those cars might be placed. It has been suggested that space might be found for them on the the Royal Infirmary site, but nothing concrete has yet been decided. The failure to sell the Royal Infirmary site is also a concern, not only its continuing decay, but also the amounts which must be spent on its security.
A perennial problem which is still largely unresolved is that of off site litter, caused by smokers and coffee drinkers. Though the Hospital has provided smoking tolerance zones for staff on site and out of sight, they are ineffective and the Hospital seems unable to prevent the offsite problem, particularly at entrances continuing, citing the fact that staff who are on unpaid breaks can not be prevented from leaving the Hospital grounds.