3:34pm Tuesday 9th February 2010
By Claire Marshall
VITAL public transport plans were secured for a new hospital at the last minute by councillors granting planning permission for the building.
Plans for a new community hospital for the Berkeley Vale were given the green light by Stroud District Council today, but only after councillors forced NHS Gloucestershire to make an 11th hour U-turn on their decision not to include transport plans.
Councillor for Cam Dennis Andrewartha, a member of the development control committee which met today, raised serious concerns over the lack of access to the proposed hospital, to be built on the Littlecombe site in Dursley.
He asked: "How can anyone recommend permission of a hospital with no public transport when we can’t even build a single house without having adequate transport?"
Cllr Andrewartha also said that the committee and the planning officers had been under "considerable pressure" to get the application ready for approval today as funding for the project was dependent on permission being granted before March 31.
Government funding is also dependent on permission being given to plans for a health and social care campus in Moreton-in-Marsh, as they will share a £20 million grant and be built simultaneously. A decision on that application will be made next Wednesday.
The application for the hospital in Dursley included no public transport plans at all.
New bus routes are planned for the wider residential development on the Littlecombe site, but councillors pointed out there was no indication when these would be built.
Cllr Andrewartha said: "Nobody wants to stop this hospital, we are not idiots, but we do want to be sure that those who do not have a car are able to get there – that is not unreasonable."
After a short adjournment in the meeting in which planning officers spoke to representatives from NHS Gloucestershire, an amendment was made to the application adding provision for temporary bus services to ferry patients to the nearest bus stop until permanent transport on the Littlecombe development is created.
Members of the development control committee voted unanimously in favour of granting permission.
The hospital will have 22 inpatient beds and extended out-patient provision offering a range of diagnostic services including x-ray, as well as a minor injuries unit from 8am - 8pm each day.
A spokeswoman for NHS Gloucestershire said that they already had a transport plan and were looking into public transport options, the council amendment consolidated this.
Chief Executive of NHS Gloucestershire, Jan Stubbings said: "This is an exciting project which will provide care and treatment in the best possible environment for the patient and in the right way to meet their individual needs. The project will deliver modern health and social care premises and community health and social care teams will continue to provide care in the patient’s own home."
NHS Gloucestershire will now be seeking tenders for the construction of the new facility which is planned to open in 2012.
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