BALLARAT Health Services staff will be bussed to and from work next year while a new car park is being built.
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According to a memo obtained by The Courier, staff have been advised to park at one of five locations across the city, where a shuttle bus will operate to take them to work.
The five locations are Eureka Linen, City Oval, Western Oval, Drummond Street North and Creswick Road.
The existing car park off Mair Street will be closed to allow for the construction of a multi-storey facility and ambulance helipad, which is set to begin within weeks.
A bus shuttle service will operate every 15 minutes between 6am and 9am and 3pm and 6pm between Eureka Linen, and the Base Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Centre.
Another bus shuttle service will operate between the City Oval and the Base Hospital between 9pm and 11.30pm.
The newsletter stated staff members who needed to return to their car in an emergency would be transported by a BHS employee “available via a mobile phone number with access to a vehicle”.
The document also said parking at the City Oval and Eureka Linen would not be available on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.
It advised parking at Drummond Street North, Creswick Road and Western Oval, with a bus shuttle service operating on a 15-minute timetable between 9pm and 11.30pm.
The document said there would still be short-term car parking available for patients attending the Ballarat Regional Integrated Cancer Centre, dialysis unit, doctors, some staff and service vehicles, along with an additional 30 bicycle spaces.
The Courier reported in May the area outside Drummond Street, in front of the hospital, as Ballarat’s worst area for parking fines, with 1182 infringements last year.
It reported the new car park would have space for an additional 492 cars.
gavin.mcgrath@fairfaxmedia.com.au