Royal Shrewsbury Hospital Parking Zones Swap on 1 September

Two car parks at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital change hands on Tuesday 1 September, and the zone numbers move with them.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust announced the change on 24 August. It is a straight swap:

• Staff Car Park 4 becomes a public car park, and takes the name Zone 1
• The current Zone 1 public car park becomes Staff Car Park 4

The trust says the change follows feedback from patients, visitors and colleagues, and will “help us make the best use of the parking available across the hospital site”. It expects the swap to give patients and visitors more spaces.

The catch is that “Zone 1” will be a different piece of tarmac from 1 September. Anyone who knows the site by zone number, or who has been told which zone to use in an appointment letter, is being sent somewhere new by the same word.

Why the old Zone 1 matters

Zone 1 is not a spare corner of the site. On the trust’s own directions page for Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, Zone 1 is described as the car park opposite the ward block and the closest one to:

• the Emergency Department, which has a drop-off space outside it
• the Ward Block, entrance 1: wards 21 to 28, Same Day Emergency Care, the O’Connor Haematology Unit and PALS
• the Lingen Davies Centre, the Hamar Centre and the Macmillan Support Centre, each in a separate building with its own signposted entrance

That page still carried the old description when we checked it on 27 August, and it was last updated on 21 July, before the swap was announced. The release itself points to a site map showing the new arrangement, and that map is the thing to look at rather than any written zone description.

Two other quirks of the site that have not changed, and that catch people out:

• Traffic leaving Zone 2 must turn left and leave via Evolution Road
• Zone 3 can only be reached from the Mytton Road roundabout, and traffic leaving it must turn right onto Evolution Road

What it costs to park

Charges apply at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These are the rates on the trust’s car parking charges page:

You pay on exit, at a machine on the car park or at the exit, by card or cash. You can also pay through the JustPark app, where the location code for Royal Shrewsbury Hospital is 998842, or by calling the automated line on 028 9124 8440 with the same code. Either way the payment has to be made before midnight on the day you were on site.

The trust adds a warning worth repeating: do not pay by scanning a QR code stuck on or near a payment machine. Scammers put them there.

Two figures the trust’s own pages disagree on

If you are in and out of the hospital more than once in a day, the charges page says you can select the daily rate instead of paying hourly each time. In the same section it says you will “pay no more than £8.50 for that day” and asks you to pay “the £8.50 fee” before you first leave. The price table higher up the same page puts 24 hours at £9.50. We could not reconcile the two, so ask at a pay machine or the kiosk rather than assuming. The daily period also runs from midnight to midnight, not 24 hours from when you arrive.

There is a second inconsistency. The trust’s parking charges FAQ page, still linked from the hospital’s own pages, sets out the charges introduced in April 2025 and gives an hour less for each price: £4.00 up to one hour, £5.50 up to two, £6.50 up to three, £7.50 up to four. The current charges page gives an extra hour in every band. Go by the charges page and by the machine.

Who parks free

Blue badge parking is free at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, but you have to register for it. There are designated spaces in every zone, with the most in Zone 2. To get the exemption:

• Report to the car park attendants in the Blue Kiosk, near the main disabled spaces on Zone 2. It opens 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 4pm at weekends
• Or call the Car Park Department on 01743 261416, 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday, closed weekends and bank holidays, with your blue badge number and expiry date

You can register up to two cars, and the exemption lasts as long as the badge.

The trust also lists standing concessions for patients receiving renal dialysis or cancer treatment, people attending for reasons connected to bereavement, parents of sick children staying overnight, and frequent attenders.

If you have been on site for more than 24 hours, or left a car while a patient was transferred between hospitals, the parking team keeps a whitelist so the vehicle is not fined. The car has to be added within 48 hours of arriving, so speak to a member of staff early.

The hospital bus is not free

The 24 August release ends by asking people to use “the free Park & Ride service” if they can. It is not free.

The trust’s own patient park and ride page says that since Monday 16 February 2026 the service costs £2 per return journey for patients and visitors, cash or card, and asks passengers to keep the return ticket for the journey back. The car parking charges page and the hospital directions page both give the same £2 fare. Only the announcement calls it free.

What the service actually is:

• Runs from the Oxon Park & Ride car park, SY3 5AD, behind the Bicton Heath Co-operative, to the Treatment Centre entrance and back
• Every 15 to 20 minutes, 6.20am to 9.25pm, weekdays only, not bank holidays
• Buses before 10am and after 4pm are very busy, because staff use them
• Shows as NHS Shuttle or OHS in the Arriva app
• Accompanied under-16s travel free. Patients receiving cancer treatment can travel free; ask the cancer services team
• Older persons’ concessionary bus passes are not accepted
• It does not stop at the ward block. Volunteers and porters at the Treatment Centre can help anyone who needs assistance with the walk
• Wheelchair accessible, one wheelchair per journey. Mobility scooters need an Arriva permit, applied for on 0344 800 4411
• There is also a walking route from the car park to the hospital, about 20 minutes

Parking at Oxon itself is free, and the site is one of the three Shrewsbury park and ride car parks the council runs.

What it means for you

If you have an appointment at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on or after 1 September:

• Do not rely on remembering where Zone 1 is. Two car parks change names that day. Follow the signs on site and the trust’s current site map, not an old letter or an old description
• Allow longer than usual in the first week. A zone renumbering confuses drivers, staff and patients at the same time
• Budget £4.00 for a two-hour visit, or £6.50 for four hours. Twenty minutes or less is free
• Register your blue badge before you need it, at the Blue Kiosk on Zone 2 or on 01743 261416. It is not automatic
• If you take the bus, take £2. The announcement calls it free; every other page on the trust’s site says it is not
• Pay at a machine or in the app, never by scanning a QR code stuck near one

The hospital is on Mytton Oak Road, Shrewsbury, SY3 8XQ, and the switchboard is 01743 261000.

Sources

• Changes to car parking at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital from 1 September, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, 24 August 2026, for the swap, the effective date and the trust’s reasoning.
• Getting to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, page last updated 21 July 2026, for the zone descriptions, the departments served by each zone, the Evolution Road exit rules and the address.
• Car Parking Charges for the price bands, the payment methods, the JustPark location code, the QR code warning, the blue badge registration route and kiosk hours, the whitelist, and the £8.50 daily rate wording.
• Patient and visitor parking charges FAQs for the April 2025 band structure and the list of concessions.
• Patient Park and Ride for the £2 return fare from 16 February 2026, the times, the frequency, the concessions, the accessibility arrangements and the walking route.

All five trust pages checked on 27 August 2026.

Driving in from elsewhere in the county? Closures, the September pothole programme and the Shrewsbury park and ride fares are on Shropshire roadworks and travel.