Planning
Planning approved for West Suffolk Hospital to be rebuilt on Hardwick Manor site
The outline planning application for the new West Suffolk Hospital was approved by the West Suffolk Council Planning Committee on 30 November.
The proposals will now be subject to the signing of a ‘Section 106 legal Agreement’ to secure appropriate planning obligations. Detailed design applications (known as Reserved Matters applications) will then be prepared and will need to be submitted and approved by the Local Planning Authority before development can commence on site. As the Local Planning Authority receives these, consultation with the wider community and consultees will be undertaken in the usual way.
Craig Black, interim chief executive said: “This is an exciting milestone taking us even closer towards building a much-needed new hospital for West Suffolk. It is the culmination of a lot of hard work by our staff, as well as valuable input from local people in developing the plans.”
The Trust is currently preparing an outline business case and, as part of the government’s New Hospital Programme, working closely with national colleagues to ensure designs and activities take full advantage of the centralised programmatic approach. The approval of the planning application means that, subject to business case approval, the new hospital is on target to be completed before the end of the decade, which is a testament to the hard work of the team and the vital input provided by the local community.
Further information can be found here.
Future opportunities to be involved in the design of the new hospital will be shared in the new year. In the meantime, to register your interest please visit https://www.wsh.nhs.uk/New-healthcare-facility/Get-involved.aspx and join the community engagement group.
Latest updates
14/10/2022 - Third round of public planning consultation launched for new hospital site
Following review of the feedback received as part of the second round of consultation carried out by the local planning authority, an amended application has been submitted and the local planning authority has launched their third round of public planning consultation which will run for 30 days.
The application can be seen on the West Suffolk Council planning portal at https://planning.westsuffolk.gov.uk/online-applications/ by searching using reference DC/22/0593/HYB.
Any feedback relating to the application must be directed to the local planning authority via the online planning portal.
1/12/2021 - Change to vehicle access for trial trenching at Hardwick Manor
We remain committed to thoroughly understanding our potential impact on this site and have engaged with the Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service with whom we intend to conduct some explorations.
This work will consist of trenches dug using mechanical excavators. The team of archaeological professionals will seek to uncover and record any historically significant features within a survey area that, although extensive, will exclude areas such as the arboretum and the walled garden.
Originally the excavator was going to access the site via the secondary entrance on Horsecroft Road. The Local Planning Authority has requested that the vehicle accesses the site via Sharp Road and remains on Hardwick Manor for the duration of the work. This would mean that the vehicle will access the site via Sharp Road once at the beginning of the work and once when leaving the site after the work has been complete. We apologise for any inconvenience that this causes.
1/12/2021 - Updated illustrative designs available on the website
On Monday 1 November the second phase of our pre-application planning engagement launched. This included a dedicated website which features illustrative designs of what the new hospital could look like on the Hardwick Manor site.
Updated versions of our initial designs have been added to the website on Monday 22 November which shows a construction compound.
Please visit https://www.wsh.nhs.uk/Planning/Planning.aspx to see the updated indicative illustrations.