WORK to demolish Thornbury Hospital could start as soon as next month.
South Gloucestershire Council, which owns the site off Eastland Road, has today been granted permission from its own planning department to knock down the remaining redbrick buildings (pictured above).
The application stated that the work is expected to start on November 1 and be finished by March 31 next year.
It will leave the site, which has been vacant since 2019 when the last services moved out, ready for the building of a new health centre.
In a document supporting the application, the council’s consultants Rapleys said: “The hospital buildings to be demolished include the existing Henderson and Grace Wards, the Berwick Unit and outpatients block, and all associated outbuildings.
“These former hospital buildings have been vacant since 2018, when the various services were relocated to other sites in the local area.”
The consultants said a block of 32 garages to the east of the hospital site, accessed from Eastbury Close, will also be demolished.
They said: “It is understood that only three of the 32 garages are currently in use.
“Notice will be served on the relevant lessees prior to demolition in line with any contractual obligations.”
The hospital site is subject to a “blanket” tree protection order, and a plan to protect the 19 trees in the demolition zone has been drawn up and sent to the council’s tree team.
However an ecological survey of the site recommended that work should be carried out between March and October, after a pipistrelle bat was seen emerging from the site.
The survey said: “Potential impacts to bats at Thornbury Hospital therefore include the destruction of a roosting site, with potential for disturbance, injury or killing of bats in their roosts during works.”
Consultants Darwin Ecology recommended “ecological supervision” of the works, providing tree-mounted bat boxes and educating contractors on their conservation.
The hospital site is not within a conservation area and none of the buildings are listed.
Rapleys concluded in their report: “Overall, it is considered that the proposed approach to demolition, along with the protection of existing neighbours, trees and ecology, is robust and will ensure the works are carried out safely and efficiently.”
The demolition plan was submitted ahead of a planning application for a new health centre on the site, which is expected to be submitted during the autumn.
£14.4 million funding approved earlier this year
Funding of £14.4 million for the new health centre on the former Thornbury Hospital site was announced by the outgoing Conservative government in May, shortly before the general election was called.
It included £1.3 million to fund a business case for the rebuild, which is due to be submitted to the government in February next year.
NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board, which funds health services in the area, is working with South Gloucestershire Council to draw up the designs for the new centre.
The council and ICB held an information session in late August where residents were invited to give their views on the plans ahead of their formal submission.
But the event was only announced six days before it happened, after August’s Voice had gone to print.
The new centre will provide a new home for Streamside Surgery and Severn Vale Family Practice, with 24 consulting rooms and three treatment rooms for community-based health services.
A development of ‘extra care housing’ for people who need support is also planned for the site.
The demolition plans can be viewed on the planning section of council’s website.