WORK has started on two new car parks for a hospital.

It will see the car parks built at Clitheroe Community Hospital with work beginning on Monday (November 6).

The work is expected to last 10 weeks and will be split into two phases.

The first phase will involve the area on the left of the hospital entrance from Chatburn Road and phase two will be at the back of the hospital, off the Pimlico Link Road.

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust chiefs said that work is expected to be complete early in the new year.

They said hospital staff and patients will benefit from an extra 43 car parking spaces, plus three existing spaces will be converted for blue badge parking.

James Maguire, divisional general manager for estates and facilities at ELHT, said: “We know from what patients and staff tell us that extra car parking spaces are needed at Clitheroe Community Hospital, and that is what we’re providing.”

The existing car park will remain open while the work is carried out, with arrangements in place to minimise inconvenience.

It comes as plans for a new 517-space car park opposite the Royal Blackburn Teaching hospital have been given planning permission.