The growing problems caused by parking on roads around Stevenage’s Lister Hospital are being tackled by a raft of proposed measures.

Since the hospital implemented a permit scheme for its staff in October last year the problem of safely finding a space and getting to the Coreys Mill Lane site has worsened.

Now Stevenage Borough Council has put a number of options on the table and is asking people what they think before pressing ahead.

A spokesman said: “We would like to implement restrictions to enable the council to effectively manage the public highway in the vicinity of the Lister Hospital with a view to deterring congestion near junctions, improving traffic management and safety in the area.”

To do this, the council is consulting people living there about introducing on-street charges in Coreys Mill Lane and Great North Road, stopping people from waiting or loading at the junction with Coreys Mill Lane and Hitchin Road to the junction from Coreys Mill Lane to Great North Road, and introducing restrictions on parking in Herne Road, Burymead, Tates Way, Chancellors Road and Franklin’s Road.

One problem is that some disabled blue badge holders park near to junctions, even if they are blocking traffic.

This has caused the emergency services problems getting to the hospital in the past, according to the council. The loading ban at junctions would stop this problem.

One of the streets affected is Burymead. Every day it is full of cars – and it’s claimed that most of them are owned by hospital staff

One man who lives in the street said: “I’m lucky because I’ve got a drive but some of my neighbours have an absolute nightmare parking outside their own houses.

“I know people around here who drop their kids off to school then come back and find that they’ve got to park miles away from their house.

“My neighbour works shifts and often has to park a 10 minute walk from his house.”

In Burymead and the three other residential roads the council is asking people if they would rather have double yellow lines along the road, which would be effective at all times, single yellow lines which would stop people parking there between 9am and 10am and 2pm and 3pm, implement a residents’ parking permit scheme for a year at a cost of £250 per resident or keep the current system.

The man added: “I can’t blame the hospital staff because they’re not well paid and probably can’t afford to fork out to park at the hospital every day.

“What should really happen is they should be given somewhere free to park by the hospital.”

The consultation will finish later this month. To find out more visit www.stevenage.gov.uk and search ‘parking at Lister Hospital’.