Hospital helipad plans for historic estate

Dale Spridgeon, local democracy reporter

An historic estate known for hosting royals, music stars and VIPs looks set to provide a helicopter landing pad for a nearby hospital.

Cyngor Gwynedd has received a full application for the temporary change of use of a pasture within the historic Vaynol Estate – known in Welsh as Parc y Faenol.

The planning application says this is to provide “a temporary helicopter landing location for Ysbyty Gwynedd”.

Logistics

A green infrastructure statement states this is to “support the logistics of the associated development for a new (permanent) helicopter landing pad at Ysbyty Gwynedd”.

It adds: “It is therefore proposed to provide a temporary landing location to the west of the hospital, to be used for the duration of the development while the primary helipad cannot be used (approximately two years).”

The new landing pad would be “in use intermittently, but 24/7 access will be required given the nature of the use,” a statement from TACP Architects on behalf of Ysbyty Gwynedd’s Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board stated.

It said: “The proposed location for the temporary landing site is on an existing pasture to be rented by the hospital for the duration of its use.”

The proposal also notes that the helipad development will not include external lighting or wind socks.

Temporary access route

The proposal states: “The only development works anticipated for this will be a temporary access route to allow emergency vehicles to drive up to the aircraft.

“This will be formed from a temporary grass track way system which would be removed on completion of the new helipad at the hospital.”

It also notes in steps to mitigate impact on biodiversity and eco-systems, that “the proposed development is only temporary and following completion of the main development on the hospital site, the pasture can return to its original use”.

It adds: “While the pasture is temporarily occupied, the impact on the field will be minimal and reversible.”

Over the years the Vaynol Hall has hosted royals, VIPs and politicians, including Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, Lord Snowdon and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

The site has also been used for popular events and festivals, including concerts with Welsh opera star Bryn Terfel, it has hosted the Eisteddfod and has been the location for the Welsh Game Fair.

According to the Coflein government website, Vaynol Park was laid out in the 1820s but occupies a site with a longer history of construction and landscape design, and was originally a possession of the Bishops of Bangor.

The Vaynol Old Hall dates from the sixteenth century and was replaced on a nearby site by the larger Vaynol Hall in the late eighteenth century by Thomas Assheton, who established the park, initially as a fox-hunting estate.

Its high stone wall, which can be seen from the A487, was built in the 1860s, and there were once five entrances.