THE Western Trust says it is “exploring options” to create between 50 and 90 extra car parking spaces at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH), outside Enniskillen.

Two planning applications have been submitted by the Trust for additional parking in a bid to ease congestion at peak demand times.

The first application seeks permission for 46 car parking spaces at four locations within the SWAH, while the second proposes plans for a new car park and the realignment of the existing parking area to create additional parking.

The Trust has stated this week that the creation of additional parking on the site would be subject to the availability of funding.

Decisions on whether these proposed new spaces would be for the public or staff, and whether they would be free or paid-for, have yet to be made.

A spokesperson said: “The Trust has implemented protected parking in one area on the site recently (Car Park C) in an attempt to meet the specific needs of the Trust’s community teams on the acute hospital site.

“This will be monitored closely to determine its benefit. The ongoing monitoring of traffic and parking across the site includes examining the impact of this change on the use of the two tier car park by the public.

“Ongoing monitoring of these changes will be required before decision-making on the need for new parking spaces on the site.”

According to the Trust, there are currently 978 car parking spaces at the South West Acute Hospital site, of which only the 138 spaces in Car Park C are protected for staff.

The spokesperson also revealed that, of these existing spaces, the Trust had approved for up to 236 as paid-for in the hospital’s multi-storey car park.

However, she added: “Currently there are 146 paid spaces on the South West Acute Hospital site as a small number have been converted to ‘free’ spaces due to congestion.”

Meanwhile, the Trust has confirmed that all the income received from parking at the SWAH site is used to fund the provision, maintenance and management of the car parking facilities at the hospital.

The spokesperson said that the implementation of the Car Parking Operational Procedures at the SWAH late last year had “significantly helped” in protecting the hospital’s blue light routes and disabled parking spaces.

“The Trust’s demand capacity monitoring of the car parking on the SWAH site shows that capacity on the site is broadly in line with demand.

“However, the site is busy at peak times and to support site users the Trust is currently scoping the potential to create additional parking spaces on site,” she added.