Major plan for hospital site in north of Morpeth unveiled

Plans for a major overhaul of Morpeth’s Northgate Hospital, including more than 100 new homes, have been lodged with the county council.
The entrance to the Northgate Hospital site.The entrance to the Northgate Hospital site.
The entrance to the Northgate Hospital site.

The hybrid application is seeking full planning permission for the demolition of some of the buildings and the development of a medium-secure inpatient unit and associated facilities, including gardening and outdoor/sports provision for patients.

Outline permission is also sought for 134 new homes on surplus land around the edges, which are said to be necessary to provide a contribution towards the funding of the hospital redevelopment.

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A design and access statement with the application explains that Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (NTW) is currently in the planning phase of three major capital developments that have been identified as strategic priorities over the next five years.

These are the development of a single integrated secure service centre of excellence, the re-provision of Newcastle and Gateshead adult inpatient services and the re-provision of adolescent medium-secure inpatient services. It will result in some services moving into Northumberland from other council areas.

The document states that the three projects are ‘interdependent and revolve around the efficient use of current estate at Northgate Hospital, St Nicholas Hospital (Gosforth) and Ferndene (Prudhoe)’.

It adds: ‘Due to the implications for NTW’s overall estate strategy and the level of interdependency, these schemes cannot be delivered both efficiently and independently of each other, therefore they have been developed as a single overall scheme.

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‘The new integrated single-site model would involve the transfer of nationally and regionally commissioned secure service beds from the St Nicholas Hospital site to existing and new purpose-built facilities on the Northgate Hospital site.’

The three sites would each have between 40 and 49 homes. The overall split would be 11 two-bedroom houses, 35 three-bedroom, 71 four-bedroom and 17 five-bedroom.