PLANS for a 1,000-vehicle park and ride on the edge of Southampton for hospital staff have been given the green light.

Test Valley Borough Council has approved plans for a permanent park and ride facility for staff working at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) and a new health and innovation campus to be built at Adanac Park in Nursling, Southampton.

The offsite parking solution for hospital staff will aim to help ease congestion on and around the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust sites as well as in neighbouring residential areas.

The park and ride service will be open to the public on weekends and provide the Southampton area with new sustainable transport infrastructure.

With permission now in place, building work is expected to start on the park and ride in 2020 with the first phase of the health and innovation campus shortly thereafter.

The proposed vision for Adanac Park Health and Innovation Campus was presented to local residents at drop-in events held in September 2018 and in January this year.

The feedback from these sessions was used to develop the proposals before a formal planning application was submitted to Test Valley Borough Council by specialist health and care developer Prime, which works in partnership with UHS on projects to improve its estates and facilities.

Ewan Forsyth, development director at Prime said: “Receiving approval is an important milestone for this exciting project.

"We are proud to be partnering with University Hospital Southampton on a development that will help solve current parking challenges and lay important foundations for future development of the Hospital, its services and its capacity to continue to meet the needs of patients, staff, students and Trust partners.”

Designed by architects Stride Treglown and One Creative Environments Ltd., the Adanac Park scheme also includes a health campus facility – a group of buildings which will provide UHS and other healthcare organisations with space for new clinical facilities, research and administrative functions.

Nael Clarke, commercial director at UHS, said: “This is a really exciting development for UHS, the Borough and City so we are extremely pleased the council has approved the plans we put forward following extensive consultation with residents, staff and the wider community.

“The facility will not only provide us with much-needed parking capacity to reduce traffic around the trust site and surrounding roads, but it will allow us to expand vital healthcare services in state-of-the-art facilities.”