Crossing lights halt traffic for ambulances

PARKING attendants are having to halt traffic by using pedestrian crossing lights so ambulances on emergency call-outs can leave a Yorkshire hospital.

Roads around York Hospital are experiencing particulaly chronic traffic congestion while a 6.4m car park is built on the site.

The problems have been made worse during six weeks’ work upgrading the gas main on the nearby notorious Gillygate bottleneck.

The attendants have been pressing buttons on the pedestrian crossing on Wiggington Road outside the hospital to stop the traffic so emergency vehicles can get on and off the site.

A York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spokeswoman confirmed that the crossing lights had also been used at peak times to let other vehicles onto the site.

Work on the multi-storey car park has reduced the hospital exit from two lanes to just one lane. The 420-space car park should open next spring.

The trust is now holding talks with both York Council and North Yorkshire Police to try to find a more permanent answer to the congestion.