A TEMPORARY car park for more than 100 vehicles is being planned in Hereford as building work gets underway at the hospital.

Work to modernise the Stonebow mental health unit, near Hereford County Hospital, started earlier this year, but car parking at the site has been lost as a result.

As part of a plan to combat the lost parking, bosses at Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, which runs the unit, said they wanted to create a new, temporary car park nearby.

Consultants working on the scheme said in a planning application that the barriers and lighting installed at the site, in Canal Road, would be removed once building work finished in June 2023.

"Stonebow Unit in Hereford is in the process of undertaking refurbishments and preparations for further larger extensions and alterations," a design and access statement said.

"Because the of the extent of the works the builders compound and portacabins require a sizable area which has resulted in a considerable loss of parking.

"The site as shown on the location plan is within walking distance to the Stonebow Unit and it is seen as the most logical relocation of the parking lost for the duration of the works.

"The Stonebow Unit would therefore wish to relocate the parking for staff, visitors and contractors to the proposed site at 7 Canal Road.

"In order to control car movement as well as reserve the spaces for those working at or visiting the Stonebow Unit we have proposed the use of one way barriers which will be placed as such to allow a car to safely pull off the road without blocking the public footpath."

There would be spaces for 102 vehicles, plans showed, and comments can be made by the public until Thursday, July 8.

A decision on application 200142 is expected on Monday, July 19.