Bridgwater health and care academy may not open until spring 2028
The project aims to turn the former community hospital into a modern centre for health, care and training services
Bridgwater’s new health and care academy may not open until the spring of 2028 as part of a new funding arrangement.
The then-Conservative government provided just over £19.7m through the levelling up fund in January 2023 to create the new facility at the former community hospital site on Salmon Parade, along with a satellite site in Minehead.
Work since this time has largely focused on delivering the Minehead site (near the town’s new police station on Stephenson Road) and carrying out design and remedial work on the Bridgwater site, working around other regeneration projects in the area.
Somerset Council has now formally agreed heads of terms for the project with local NHS officials, enabling construction to begin once planning permission has been granted.
But the new facility may not be fully operational until the spring of 2028 after the deadline to spend the levelling up grant was formally extended by the current Labour government.
Councillor Sarah Wakefield, portfolio holder for adults’ services, housing and homelessness, provided details of the new agreement when the council’s executive committee met in Taunton on Wednesday morning (May 6).
She said: “There’s been a lot of hard work that has gone on, including the development of funding streams for the proposals and the assessment of risks, of which there are several.
“The levelling up funding grant is subject to constraints, particularly the timing during which it has to be spent. We have achieved an extension of that, but we are still under constraints.
“It’s a great idea and it’s really popular, because this hospital in Bridgwater has needed looking at and redeveloping for a very long time since it’s been closed – but the practical achievement of those aims is always harder than people think.”
The hospital lies on Salmon Parade between the A38 Broadway and Eastover, on the town’s Celebration Mile – with the council currently working on proposals to re-introduce car parking on the street following negative local feedback.
Under the plans published in October 2025, the existing front door to the former hospital will be maintained, with the main step-free access being from the western side (with 25 car parking spaces and numerous cycle spaces being provided nearby) and a new ancillary access being created from the east.
Up to 3,000 training sessions will be delivered by the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust through the academy every year (whether in-person or virtually) across nearly 3,000 sq m of working space, with a range of training rooms, offices and outdoor training space being provided over three floors within the complex.
The site will also include an early years centre and an independent living centre – the latter of which provides support and technology for people wishing to remain in their homes longer, rather than moving into a nursing home.
Under this agreement, the council will oversee the construction work after planning permission is secured, with the remaining levelling up funding being supplemented by £1.5m from the Hinkley Point C regeneration fund and £630,000 from the Bridgwater town deal.
The council will continue to own the building once construction has been completed, with the NHS trust (which runs the existing community hospital on Bower Lane) being responsible for recruiting and retaining staff, delivering training and maintaining the property.
The training services will be formally commissioned by the NHS Somerset integrated care board (ICB), ensuring that the “primary care and training hubs” work in partnership with other NHS services in the local area.
Ms Wakefield (who represents the Blackdown and Neroche division) added: “I’m really excited about this project, which will help our social care workers and others in that industry to be trained and kept up to the mark.
“This is something we need in Somerset. It will provide work, it will provide opportunities for people, and we need people to work in social care.”
Sarah Green, the ICB’s academy director, added: “This really offers an exciting opportunity for Somerset, in an integrated way, of doing things differently together to the benefit of our communities and our workforce.”
Council leader Bill Revans – who served on Sedgemoor District Council when the funding was first secured – said he was delighted to see the project moving forward.
Mr Revans (who represents the neighbouring North Petherton division) said: “I’m really pleased that at last, we’re starting to see signs that this building will be brought back into use.
“It is a very prominent building in the centre of Bridgwater, and it’s been a huge disappointment that it’s taken a significant amount of time to get to this stage.
“Myself, many members of my family and many of my friends have had treatment in that building – we know it very well, it is much loved.
“Having it brought back into positive use will be important for the regeneration of Bridgwater.”
The full business case for the health and care academy is expected to come before the executive in early-June.
The formal plans for the site will be discussed by the council’s planning committee north (which handles major applications within the former Sedgemoor area) later in the year.