City planners have warned of further parking misery in Edgbaston after giving the green light to an extension of Birmingham Dental Hospital.

The hospital, which is still under construction, says it needs the extra building for a general anaesthetic suite to accompany the new state-of-the-art hospital on the former BBC Pebble Mill site.

But the new building will eat up 15 parking spaces, prompting fears it will further add to the parking pressures in the area.

New developments at the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hospital and University of Birmingham over recent years have seen visitor and staff numbers increase while parking spaces have fallen - leaving more and more cars stacked up on nearby residential streets.

Residents have grown increasingly frustrated at the situation with some taking matters into their hands and daubing the word 'idiot' on a badly parked car.

The dental hospital, in a submission to the council's planning committee, said the recent changes in health service guidelines meant the anaesthetic facility needed to be provided on site.

The hospital has secured temporary permission, lasting three years, for the facility after which it hopes to find a more permanent location.

This means it will now provide just 241 spaces for up to 450 staff, 650 students and patients.

A pedestrian vents their fury on a car parked in Harrisons Road, Edgbaston
A pedestrian vents their fury on a car parked in Harrisons Road, Edgbaston

Planning committee member Martin Straker-Welds (Lab Moseley and Kings Heath) said: "It is alarming to find the progressive degrading of car parking facilities on a site as busy as this."

And he quoted a former colleague's fear Edgbaston was being turned into a "giant car park".

He suggested the hospitals looked to provide a park and ride or shuttle bus facility.

Fellow committee member John Clancy (Lab Quinton) added that a general anaesthetic facility meant patients would be unable to travel themselves, would likely come by car and therefore more parking was needed.

"The reality is you are less likely to use public transport in this situation. That, you would think, actually increases the need for parking," he said.

"My concern is the harmful impact on the residential amenity and roads in this area. I have a problem with that."

The committee has previously called for an overall review of the wider parking situation in Edgbaston as it is continually instructed to decide each application in isolation but so far no wider review has been carried out.

Transportation officer Paul Cowan said: "Our local network is currently at capacity for various reasons in terms of parking. We are concerned about this."