An artist s impression of the new Whipps Cross Hospital (Barts/Ryder Architecture) Plans for a six-storey car park as part of the new Whipps Cross Hospital have added to concerns over air pollution. The new hospital, managed by Barts Health NHS Trust, is due to be completed by 2026 and will shrink the current campus, freeing up space for at least 1,500 new homes. The first set of plans shows where the new homes will be located and details plans for the multi-storey car park, due to open at the end of next year. More than 1,200 spaces are currently dotted around the site and, while Barts insists the new car park will be more efficient, its future neighbours are worried it will concentrate air pollution near their homes.
The panhandle leads directly onto Hospital Road Residents living next to Whipps Cross are urging the council not to let the NHS use a stretch of open land as an access road while the new hospital is built. Land known locally as the “panhandle” - where the hospital is the “pan” - runs from Hospital Road until just before Lea Bridge Road, between the back gardens of numerous homes. The Panhandle Action Community Team (PACT) is concerned Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs Whipps Cross, wants to open up this land to provide access for construction vehicles. At a meeting of the neighbourhoods scrutiny committee on January 26, PACT members called on councillors not to undo their hard work to improve air quality or create another busy junction on Lea Bridge Road.