No quick solution to hospital traffic - councillor

Major traffic congestion outside York Hospital can be blamed on several factors - and the problem will not be solved "overnight", a leading city councillor has said.

Short-term measures to tackle queues on Wigginton Road, which runs past the site, were being looked at, but there were "no quick, easy solutions", said Kate Ravilious, executive member for transport.

Her comments followed calls for congestion to be urgently dealt with amid fears it was fuelling dangerous driving and leading to long delays.

A York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust spokesperson said they recognised congestion and parking could be frustrating for everyone, and were reviewing a recent petition on the issue.

Ravilious told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that City of York Council was "very much working with the hospital on addressing traffic issues".

She added that a proposed trial ban on private traffic driving through Rougier Street in the city centre was not expected to affect congestion in Wigginton Road.

"There are things we'll be doing in the short-term. Our modelling doesn't suggest the Rougier Route will massively affect how traffic behaves on Wigginton Road."

Dave Merrett, Labour Guildhall ward councillor, said drivers had been travelling the wrong way down the road while traffic was backed up from Wigginton Road to the hospital's car park.

He told the council's executive earlier in June that queues had sometimes reached as far as Gillygate's junction with Lord Mayor's Walk, making bus journeys unreliable and fuelling air pollution.

A petition launched by Labour Guildhall ward councillors in February and signed by 1,960 people was presented to York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust's board in May.

The board meeting heard a number of cost-free options were being considered, including better advice on getting to the hospital and the location of alternative car parks.

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