A HASLEMERE doctor has told the town council that it should carry out a traffic survey itself if it wants information to help solve the hospital parking problem.

In reply to a letter from Haslemere Town Council asking the health centre to carry out a survey, Dr Chris Taylor said that it would be "almost impossible".

"We are particularly busy seeing on average 13,500 patients a year taking 44,410 consultations. As you can imagine our staff are particularly stretched catering for this number of people and to find someone extra to stand in the car park to carry out a survey would be impossible," said Dr Taylor

"I would suggest that if you require a survey you carry this out yourselves."

Dr Taylor points out that the Surrey/Hamsphire Border Trust car park has been taken over by Waverley Primary Care Trust, PCT, and is not their responsibility.

He also took issue over the decision to move the ambulance station to the hospital site earlier this year. "Before it was situated in an ideal position on the Grayswood Road with direct access on to the main road."

"We were not fully consulted about this and we have now lost 20 parking spaces for our staff," he said. "I can understand the concerns and frustrations of the patients and we ourselves are equally frustrated but a lot of these issues are out of our control," said Dr Taylor in his letter.

The matter was expected to be discussed at a meeting last night (Thursday) of Haslemere Town Council's planning and highways committee.