The back street is one of many in the hospital district favoured by medical staff, and has 13 parking spaces that will be reopened for unrestricted public use. Photo: Anna Maskus.
Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) workers who park next to Wagga Base Hospital will lose their exclusive rights to park on Peck Street within the next six months.
Once the hospital’s new multi-storey car park is completed, Wagga Council plans to revert Peck Street’s spaces from MLHD’s ‘Authorised Vehicles Only’ arrangement to unrestricted publicly available parking.
Wagga Hospital corporate and business services manager Michael Morris, a Wagga resident of more than 20 years, said the arrangement had been “very beneficial” for hospital staff including doctors, clinical staff and contractors.
Mr Morris said the Docker Street car park upgrade was expected to be completed between late October and early November 2022 and would create an additional 150 spaces.
The multi-storey car park at the Base Hospital was expected to be completed in November 2022 and would add 350 spaces across six levels.
Once completed, the $431 million Wagga Wagga Health Service Redevelopment project would have provided more than 900 parking spaces, more than double the amount in the precinct in 2020.
Mr Morris requested that the council’s current plans to reallocate the type of parking in Peck Street be delayed until December this year to allow for completion of the carparks.
Peck Street can be seen just to the right of the Mental Health Unit of Wagga Base Hospital. The main car park and Docker Street upgrades are expected to replace these car parks going into 2023. Photo: Murrumbidgee Local Health District.
Cr Rod Kendall supported the request.
“It would be wise for us to give the Local Health District enough time to know that their new parking arrangements are completed before we make changes in Peck Street,” Cr Rod Kendall said.
Cr Georgie Davies called for the wording of the motion to be changed – the signage was set to be revoked in January 2023 but has now been changed so that Peck Street’s allocated parking will cease after the completion of the multi-storey car park project – whenever that may be.
“It stops guesswork regarding exactly when the car park is going to be finished and prevents these issues arising in future,” he said.
Mayor Dallas Tout agreed with the councillors, acknowledging the historical precedent of MLHD staff exclusively utilising Peck Street, and said it was important to respect this when deciding when to remove the signs.
The council subsequently agreed to revoke the MLHD ‘Authorised Vehicles Only’ arrangement on Peck Street, Wagga Wagga, only once the hospital’s new multi-storey car park was completed.
Peck Street would then revert to unrestricted parallel parking, available to the public.
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