The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Sale of hospital site progresses
HOSPITAL bosses say they are expecting to have chosen a preferred buyer for the former Peterborough District Hospital site by the end of June.
This is the message from Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, eight months after the site in Thorpe Road went on the open market.
Peterborough District Hospital closed at the end of 2010 when the trust’s new £289 million Peterborough City Hospital opened in Bretton.
At the trust’s board of governors meeting in January, chairman Nigel Hards said a preferred bidder could be agreed as early as May. He gave an update to the ET about the sale yesterday.
He said: “The trust is currently working with its land agents on the sale of the Peterborough District Hospital site. There are a number of bidders for the site. However, the exact number and identity of those bidders has to be kept confidential for commercial reasons.
“We expect to decide who the preferred bidder is by the end of June. After this, a timetable will be developed with the preferred bidder and Peterborough City Council’s planning team to discuss plans for the site.”
He added: “The main focus for the trust is to seek the maximum yield from the land in order to plough that back into patient services in the city.”
Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson urged the trust to push ahead with the sale.
He said: “I’m quite disappointed this site has now been derelict for more than 18 months and it’s a public asset which has lain empty and for all intents and purposes useless, which could have been sold for a good sum of money to assist the hospital trust with their financial difficulties.”
Mr Jackson also questioned the amount of cash paid to property consultant Jones Lang Lasalle, as well as when it was formerly King Sturge, by the trust - a sum which is in the hundreds of thousands.
Mr Stewart said: “I think there’s an issue about value for money there. They just need to get on with it and get the property sold and the land sold.”
The trust has previously said Jones Lang Lasalle provides expert consultancy preparing the land for sale which could not have been completed by its own staff.
Yesterday a trust spokeswoman added there had been “no hold-up” in the process.
Peterborough City Council has also been providing advice for potential new owners.
A spokeswoman said: “The Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust requested pre-application advice about the former Peterborough District Hospital site for itself and any bidders there might be for the site.
“We agreed to provide this service which involved planning officers giving advice and feedback on indicative draft schemes prepared by bid teams.”