Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Hospital scheme spells trouble, say residents
A proposed new hospital and 2,000 new homes will impose upon Canterbury challenges it may not be able to meet, says a residents’ umbrella group.
The Alliance of Canterbury Residents Associations (Acra) believes the plans which emerged last week will leave the council and city grappling with issues from employment and education to public transport and infrastructure.
Developer Quinn Estates has offered to construct a five-storey “shell” of a new hospital at a cost of £70 million on councilowned farmland next to the existing rundown Kent & Canterbury site.
But the project is contingent on permission being granted for 2,000 new homes on surrounding land, in addition to the 4,000-home Mountfield Park development, which residents say already threatens to worsen congestion and pollution and increase demand for access to local services.
Acra chairman Clive Church forecasts headaches for the city should it pursue the Quinn proposals.
“A lot of residents remain unconvinced that either the city or the council are in a posi-
tion to meet the challenges that would arise,” said Mr Church, of New House Lane.
“There are going to be huge challenges with things like the cumulative effect on transport and on roads. This number of people is also going to have an impact on local governance and it’s going to raise questions about employment, about where people work.
“In an ideal world there would, of course, be better public transport. But this is not an ideal world – people have been trying to get a bus route for where I live unsuccessfully since 1936.”
The proposals involve only a new hospital shell, leaving the NHS to find the money for the equipment and staff. Mr
Church said he would welcome a new hospital, but added: “But who has the £600m in their back pocket to equip it? We are seeing services at the hospital run down, but we are seeing the growth of the population of Canterbury as well.”
In the Quinn Estates’ plan, the NHS would retain control of its existing site and dispose of it anyway it saw fit.
Director Mark Quinn said: “They can do what they want with the land. It may be they sell it to generate the funds to fit out the new hospital, but that’s up to them.
“If I was them I’d build some almshouses and a load of rented accommodation so they can turn it from being a drain upon the public purse to being
an income-producing asset.
“I’d build houses for nurses and doctors to make it more attractive to work for the NHS in Canterbury.
“I want to build a really efficient, fit-for-purpose hospital over five floors, which you’ll walk into, go into a lift and go to wherever you want to go.
“You have usable space where people get treated, not endless walking down corridors on 30 acres of land in an incredibly ineffective and inefficient building, which is currently what happens.”
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