First phase of £107m hospital redevelopment rubberstamped
Richard Evans, local democracy reporter
The first phase of the £107m redevelopment of a derelict Victorian hospital has been approved.
Senior Denbighshire councillors met today (Tuesday) seeking approval to issue £3m of third-party funding to North Wales Hospital Ltd to support the delivery of phase one of the Former North Wales Hospital project.
Costing a total of £107m, the redevelopment of the site is expected to take 12 years to complete.
The hospital has remained empty since 1996.
The cabinet were tasked with rubberstamping the first phase of the project so it can move forward.
Demolition
Phase one of the scheme will include demolitions and site remediation works, upgrading utilities, and the establishment of bio habitat infrastructure as well as a construction skills centre.
Denbighshire bought the site following a compulsory purchase order in 2018, and the eventual development could see 300 new homes built on the land as well as business units.
Denbighshire’s head of planning, public protection, and countryside services Emlyn Jones said: “It is a positive story, a positive report today in front of you.
“It actually allows us to hopefully today to move forward in allocating the £3m in Levelling-Up to Jones Brothers through the North Wales Hospital Ltd company, which will be managed with a really detailed funding agreement.”
‘Long history’
Leader Cllr Jason McClellan said: “There’s a long history to this project. Of course, today it is just confirming the release of the funds so we can move towards conclusion on this.”
Denbigh councillor Rhys Thomas said: “Personally, I’m very, very supportive of this. It is good to see the project moving forward after all the difficulties that have been encountered over the years. There is a great deal of interest from the public in Denbigh, of course, about this – what is going to happen with the former North Wales Hospital.”
The funding is part of the Levelling-Up Fund Vale of Clwyd Programme, following the UK Government recently formalising a grant award of £7m, contributing towards the £13m cost of phase one.
Considered a project of regional significance, the scheme is being led by Ambition North Wales, who have secured the £3m of private investment, with “no additional cost to the council”.
As part of the funding agreement, the council was required to undertake due diligence checks before issuing the third-party funding agreement.
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Some of us would like to see it demolished. It’s the place where, in 1975, I was ‘treated’ with Electric Shock Aversion Therapy by a psychiatrist who believed he could ‘cure’ gay men… I left the hospital damaged by such torture! I was fortunate to move to California in the early 1980s and had three years of therapy to undo the damage done in that Victorian asylum.
Surly it would be cheaper to demolish it and start a new it looks like a derelict dump
The article doesn’t make clear what the old hospital building is to become.