NEW MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITAL IN PIPELINE FOR TOWN CENTRE
30 beds and 111 staff at planned site
PLANS have been unveiled to build a mental health hospital in the centre of Burslem.
Cygnet Health Care wants to create the complex on land off Westport Road.
The site, also adjacent to Hall
Street, is currently used as a car park following the demolition of an industrial unit that previously stood there.
A proposal submitted to Stokeon-trent City Council reveals the three-storey ‘residential mental health facility’ would have 30 beds and 111 staff. The ground floor would have a 15-bed ward as well as treatment rooms and ‘leisure spaces’, while a second 15-bed ward would be situated on the first floor alongside eating spaces and therapy rooms. The second floor would be given over to staff meeting rooms and office space.
The plans state the ensuite rooms would have a ‘welcoming, homely feeling’ and give residents privacy.
There would also be a garden – separated into two parts – created inside an inner courtyard to provide ‘therapeutic recreational spaces’.
The hospital – next to St Joseph’s Catholic Church – would be accessed via a new, six-metre wide entrance off Westport Road, while the existing access next to the White Hart pub would be reinstated as a footpath.
A 29-space car park would be built at the front of the new hospital, including two disabled spaces and two electric vehicle charging points.
The city council has also
received a planning application from Lotus Sanctuary to turn the White Hart into supported living accommodation for victims of domestic violence. A decision on the proposal has yet to be made.
Cygnet Health Care was established in 1988 and runs 150 services for individuals with mental health needs, autism and learning disabilities.
The firm, which has a head office in Sevenoaks, Kent, has 10,000 employees.
The plans are available to view on the Stoke-on-trent City Council website. The application will be considered by the authority’s planning department.