THE chairman of North Wales’ health board is encouraging staff and patients to car share and use public transport in a bid to solve problems at busy hospital car parks.

Speaking at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board’s AGM in Llandudno, chairman Dyfed Edwards said simply increasing the size of hospital car parks was not the right way forward.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked Mr Edwards what the health board were doing about people struggling to park – specifically at Wrexham’s Maelor Hospital as well as Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor.

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The health board has faced criticism for the lack of parking spaces, particularly at Wrexham, with drivers parking on verges, pavements, and double yellow lines.

It plans to increase parking at Wrexham by extending the car park on new land nearby, but Mr Edwards said more people needed to travel to hospitals together or use public transport.

“There is a parking issue at the Maelor, ” he said.

“The Maelor issue is a long-standing one.  I think two things: one, we are looking to increase parking capacity not far from the main site.

“But also I would like to encourage people to use public transport as much as possible and car sharing and reduce the number of cars, and I think the combination of those two things would be a good thing.

“Ysbyty Gwynedd, I know quite well, has vast areas of parking. But it is quite challenging to get a parking space.”

He added: “So we need to look at public transport and car sharing as part of the solution not just building more car parks.”