As reported in yesterday’s Evening Telegraph, we have raised concerns with Dundee City Council about road safety at Dundee rail station, following constituents highlighting the lack of a proper bus bay outside the rail station – see photo.

Residents have raised with us the fact that, as there is no bus bay for the Stagecoach buses that drop off and pick up passengers at the station, the very busy inside lane is blocked when a bus is stationary at the bus stop.   

This leads to drivers trying to switch lane to get past the bus and residents have highlighted examples of near misses of vehicles as some drivers dart out to get past the bus and back into the nearside lane.     All this could have been avoided if the council simply supplied a bus bay at this site. 

The councillors contacted the City Council about this and were advised by the council’s Team Leader for parking and sustainable transport as follows :

“I do recall that there was a discussion about pros and cons of a bus lay-by (circa 2015/2016) at the station but I can’t recall the detail of why it was rejected.   My best memory was that ultimately it was a considered decision taken by the then Director of City Development and based on a desire for high quality public realm in front of the station.   

“In practice, the Stagecoach buses stopping at this location has not caused significant disruption to traffic and I am unaware of any accidents involving buses.   The sightlines are fairly good on the approach from east and west and much of the traffic should be travelling at reduced speeds.”

We really don’t accept the “high quality public realm” argument against putting in a bus bay here – public safety is paramount and the space in front of the station is really wide so a bus bay could have been accommodated without impacting on the quality of the public realm at all.   

We did have the accident record database checked and although accepting that any bumps to date will have been minor as there have been no more serious accidents reported to Police Scotland since 2019, we still think it would be common sense to provide a bus bay – not just from the safety aspect but it would also help avoid tailbacks at this very busy stretch on road when buses are stopped at the bus stop, particularly at rush hour.

We have asked the Director of City Development if senior officers can discuss this request more fully.

There’s a wider issue about the disconnect between rail station and bus station services in the city but meantime we would like to see the bus situation right outside the rail station addressed.

We regularly receive complaints from constituents about the difficulty getting parked at Ninewells Hospital in our West End Ward and this is a particular concern for people with an out-patient appointment with a specific time.    Residents report circling round and round the hospital’s car parks in their vehicle trying to find an available space.   

Although the challenging parking situation has always been an issue at the hospital, people report it has worsened since parking charges have been abolished.    We strongly supported the abolition of parking charges as these were effectively a tax on ill-health, but it is important that spaces are used by patients, staff and visitors to the hospital and not used as a free ‘park and ride’ facility by commuters with no connection to the hospital.

We raised the possibility of parking arrangements being reviewed to adopt the system at Perth Royal Infirmary where the parking is also free but you must display a tear-off slip from your appointment letter to use some of the car parking spaces.   

The system at PRI is a good idea.   It means that there are parking spaces specifically allocated to out patients who display a tear off strip on their car dashboard as proof of their appointment.   This makes getting a space a little easier and also gets round the problem of time-limited spaces too.    We therefore asked NHS Tayside if it would consider doing this also at Ninewells Hospital and we are pleased at a positive response to this suggestion.

NHS Tayside Director of Facilities, John Paterson, advised us : 

“NHS Tayside offers free parking and operates one of the largest car parks within Scotland, with 2383 spaces available within the Ninewells Hospital site. Ninewells Hospital can experience significant car parking demands at certain peak times of the day, which is a similar situation as experienced at most large acute hospitals. Over the years we have introduced measures to maximise the number of parking spaces and make best use of the physical footprint space available and to manage car parking effectively.

Within the grounds of Ninewells Hospital there are strict parking arrangements in place that support an effective and safe environment for patients, visitors and staff. Signage is present in all areas outlining the parking arrangements on the Ninewells site, with clear notification of penalties should a member of staff or visitor fail to comply with these arrangements.

There are dedicated short-stay parking specifically for patients and visitors adjacent to the entrances of the hospital, found within Car Parks 5, 6, 7, East Block car park and the Renal Unit car park. To support this initiative we have ‘Collect and Display’ ticket machines within these car parks. Long-stay parking is also available for staff, patients and visitors within Car Parks 1, 2, 9 and the multi-storey (Car Park 8).

I can confirm that we are exploring the opportunity for our outpatient services to adopt the tear off slip on the letters from our clinical colleagues to be consistently implemented across Tayside.

It is really worth noting that this system does not guarantee patients a parking space. However, whilst parking in a time restricted area, no patient will receive a parking charge notice.” 

We appreciate that parking will always be a challenge at such a large hospital and know from constituents that many use public transport to get to Ninewells Hospital as it is well-served by bus services, but that’s not an option for every out-patient and having the tear-off slip system would, in our view, improve matters for out-patients so we really do hope NHS Tayside rolls out this system already in place at PRI to Ninewells Hospital as soon as possible.