23 trees at Stroud Maternity Hospital are now protected, beside a plan for 41 more parking spaces. The tree officer could recommend refusal. Comments close 23 Sept.

Stroud District Council has put a Tree Preservation Order on 23 trees at Stroud Maternity Hospital. The council’s tree officer says ten of them would be directly affected by a planning application for 41 more parking spaces.

The order was made on Friday 11 September. On the same day, the council’s tree officer said the car park plan needs more work to show it will not harm those trees. Without that work, the officer recommends refusal.

Comments on the car park application close on Wednesday 23 September. Every public comment we could read on the file objects.

What the application proposes

The application is S.26/1401/FUL, validated on 21 August 2026. It covers:

  • an extension to the existing car park at the maternity hospital on Field Road
  • taking on-site parking from 105 spaces to 146, a rise of 41
  • reorganising the current parking
  • widening the single-track access lane to add a passing bay
  • lighting columns for the new parking areas

The application form lists the proposed surfaces as tarmac and a permeable plastic grid filled with stone. It is due to be decided by council officers rather than a committee, with a target date of 16 October 2026.

This is the second attempt. An almost identical application, S.26/0501/FUL, was validated in March and withdrawn on 16 June. The architect’s supporting statement says it was withdrawn “to enable time for further survey works to be carried out”.

Timeline of the Stroud Maternity Hospital car park plan in 2026: first application validated 23 March, fruit trees removed in May according to objectors, first application withdrawn 16 June, new application validated 21 August, Tree Preservation Order made 11 September, comments on the car park close 23 September, comments on the tree order close 9 October, target decision date 16 October
How the plan got here, and the dates still to come. Source: Stroud District Council planning register.

Why the hospital says it needs the spaces

The case for the extra parking is in a transport note by Helix Transport Consultants. It says the parking is used by visitors to both the maternity and general hospitals, and that “more often than not” people end up parking along Bowbridge Lane.

The note applies the council’s parking standard to the hospitals’ own staff and visitor numbers. That standard points to 50 spaces for staff and 85 for visitors, 135 in all. The current 105 spaces fall short of that. The proposed 146 would meet it “plus a modest contingency”.

The note makes two further points:

  • the car park has no enforcement, and “is known to be used, illegitimately, by some members of the public”
  • the NHS trust does not charge for parking at any of its sites “as a matter of policy”

Gloucestershire County Council, as highway authority, raised no objection in principle on 10 September. It has asked for a car park management plan, and for confirmation that tandem spaces off Field Road are for staff only.

What the tree order protects

The council’s notice says the order took effect on 11 September on a temporary basis, for six months. It protects the trees “by virtue of their public amenity value and landscape value”. While it is in force, nobody may cut down, top, lop, uproot or wilfully damage the trees without the council’s permission.

The order’s schedule lists:

  • T1, a walnut, and T2, a silver maple
  • G1, eight limes, and G2, three limes, beside Bowbridge Lane
  • G3 and G4, four limes each, in the grounds south of the maternity hospital
  • G5, two limes, beside Field Road

The tree officer’s comments on the application say the trees directly affected by the car park are T1, T2, G3 and G4. That is ten of the 23.

The officer expects some of the new parking, lighting and track work to reach into the root protection areas of those trees. The applicant has been asked for an arboricultural impact assessment and tree protection measures. The officer’s concerns include:

  • lighting columns inside root areas and tree crowns
  • how cabling would reach those columns
  • parking under the lime trees, which could lead to demands for heavy pruning
  • the need for “no dig” surfaces within root areas

The officer has no objection to losing three smaller trees and a group of shrubs. The applicant’s tree report rates them as low quality. They are two cultivated apple trees, a wild cherry and a group of newly planted mixed species, which the report marks for removal with replacement planting. The report does not say when the trees were surveyed, and we could not establish whether these are among the trees objectors say have already gone.

If the extra tree information is not supplied, the officer “recommend[s] refusal on the basis of insufficient information”.

The fruit trees objectors say have already gone

Many of the public objections are about trees that are no longer there. Several objectors say fruit trees were planted on the grass in 2014 by local people, with the hospital trust’s permission, and were removed in May 2026. One objector, who says they helped plant them, puts it at seven trees planted and five uprooted. Two objectors say one of the trees had been planted in memory of a colleague who died.

We could not confirm the number of trees or the date of removal from any official record. The NHS Forest, the national scheme for green space on health sites, does record that members of Edible Stroud, part of Transition Stroud, planted a quince tree, fruit bushes and herbs at the site on NHS Sustainability Day 2014.

By 16 September the register held 16 public comments from 11 addresses. The 14 that can be read online all object. Their main grounds are:

  • the loss of green space, biodiversity and fruit trees
  • the risk to the roots of the remaining established trees
  • more hard surfacing adding to surface water flooding
  • noise and disturbance for neighbours on Bowbridge Lane
  • that better management, such as enforcement or charging non-patients, would free spaces without building more

The tree order itself has drawn two comments so far.

What it means for you

  • To comment on the car park plan, use the council’s planning register for S.26/1401/FUL before 23 September 2026.
  • To support or object to the tree order, write to the council’s tree officer at planning@stroud.gov.uk by 9 October 2026, naming the trees you mean. The council does not accept anonymous comments on tree orders.
  • If you visit either hospital, parking stays free and unchanged for now. Nothing can be built until the application is decided.
  • If you live nearby, the council’s environmental health team has asked that any construction be limited to 8am to 6pm on weekdays and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays, with no work on Sundays or bank holidays.

Other planning decisions across the district are on our Stroud planning news page.

Sources