Second bid to turn empty Coventry offices to private hospitals
It would see 40more patients seen a day in the city.
Developers have launched a second bid to turn empty Coventry offices into a private hospital. If the scheme goes ahead, Ashford House in Walsgrave would become a medical facility providing NHS services for some 40 patients per day, plans say.
The hospital staffed by around 55 people in the day would specialise in health issues relating to eyes and sight, and feet and ankles, documents say. Developers Cloverglade Ltd claim the facility would help relieve pressure on the local NHS and cut waiting times for the opthalmology and podiatry services.
But their earlier bid to change the use of the building hit a hurdle last year. Officials refused it the go-ahead over concerns about travel to the site, which is in the Walsgrave Triangle Business Park.
They said it is not in a “sustainable” place due to the lack of bus and cycle links and developers had no plans to mitigate this. Officers also claimed there would be too many car parking spaces, stating in a decision notice that these “significantly exceed the maximum requirements” which could put people off using alternative travel modes.
They claimed plans did not show the new hospital would not severely affect local roads or highway safety. But they did agree with the idea of the hospital conversion, despite a formal objection from a neighbour and a submitted “school survey” on the scheme where the majority of 47 people chose “object.”
Council planners said it would be in the right place, enough had been done to market the vacant building over two years, and would not be “viable” for use as a council-run school. Last week, developers lodged the plan for the second time.
A cover letter by a planner at agents Frampton Town Planning said the “fundamentally identical” application has dealt with the reasons it was turned down last year. They claimed developers did not have enough time to respond to the highways issues before last year’s decision, and a planning statement also called the circumstances around the ruling “regrettable.”
The statement claimed the building is in a sustainable location and the scheme would not severely affect local roads. Developers have reduced the number of parking spaces, there is cycle parking and further traffic tests have been done, it added.
If the plans are approved, the building would change use meaning it could become a hospital or stay as offices.