This Monday, 8th December, is the next Full Meeting of the Northwich Town Council. The agenda and notes confirm what we already know: the proposed car park on Verdin Park won’t solve the hospital’s parking problem, but the Council and the NHS Trust are preparing to spend more time and OUR money on legal fees trying to push it anyway.

Help fund the defence at Gofundme

Councillors acknowledged that:

• Staff will still end up parking on side streets, because the proposed car park is too small to meet demand.
• Patients need the spaces, yet the plan doesn’t fix patient parking either.
• Legal risks fall on NTC, not the Trust, and the Council has now agreed to seek extra, EXPENSIVE legal advice from a specialist barrister, meaning more public money spent defending an unpopular proposal.
• Even supporters are now scrambling for alternatives, calling for “no-dig” options and asking why sustainable transport and demand-reduction measures weren’t explored.
• The NHS STILL refuses to address the main causes of short-term parking pressure - the quick in-and-out departments like phlebotomy and physiotherapy. Councillor Cernik openly said she has been pushing for these high-footfall services to move to a satellite location in the town centre, something the Trust has refused for now, despite admitting it could be considered in the future.

If those services were moved off-site, the parking pressure would drop dramatically, and the entire justification for taking parkland would disappear.

Instead of solving the root issue, the Trust wants NTC to take on legal exposure, financial risk, and public anger... for a car park that is too small, too slow, and too damaging to be worth it.

The community shouldn’t have to pay - financially or in lost green space - for a plan that doesn’t work.

We are continuing to gather expert planning, legal and heritage evidence to stop this. If you can support the fight, even a small donation makes a real difference.

👉 Donate here: Help fund the defence at Gofundme

Verdin Park belongs to Northwich. We will protect it - especially when the proposed solution won’t even fix the problem it claims to solve.