A hospital in Swindon will be able to increase its parking provision after the council approved plans.

And that will come as a relief to its boss who told Swindon councillors that parking was her biggest day-to-day headache in running the Ridgeway Hospital in Wroughton.

The private facility in Moormead Road has bought a square patch of land behind its existing car park in order to be able to expand its provision for both staff, patients and visitors.

But that causes worries to both nearby neighbours who feared an intrusion into their privacy, and Wroughton Parish Council.

The smaller authority had called the application in for consideration by the borough council’s planning committee.

Kate Liddington, the hospital’s executive director, told the committee: “We are a very busy hospital providing operations and diagnostic services, and a full range of outpatient treatments to NHS patients, those with private insurance and those self-funding their care.

"We are open 24 hours a day seven days a week but most clinics are open 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, and most of our patients, and our staff come from the local area of Swindon and Wiltshire, though some patients come from further afield for more specialist care.

“The biggest complaint I get from staff and patients, my biggest headache day to day is the parking.

“We encourage our staff to park elsewhere, to walk to cycle to work or car share.

“We desperately need this car parking.”

Early in the planning process, the council’s ecology officer had expressed concerns about the removal of some trees.

And neighbours living In Saxon Close had written to planners and the committee about an intrusion on their privacy.

Wroughton Parish Council had also been concerned and had called in the proposals for discussion.

But after a question by Councillor Gary Sumner, it emerged that the parish council, had withdrawn its objections and its request for the calling in of the matter at 5pm on the evening of the committee meeting.

It also emerged that the group of trees that were of most concern to the Saxon Close residents would not be cut down, and that the ecology officer’s concerns had been allayed.

With that, the committee voted to approve the hospital’s plan unanimously.