No money for hospital

From the archive, first published Thursday 12th Apr 2007.

St Michael's Hospital will be turned into luxury flats, but the millions of pounds made from the sale will not fund a community hospital in Braintree.

Instead, the £2.3 million the NHS is expected to receive from the sale of the Braintree hospital will go into providing services at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford.

Braintree Council's Braintree area committee has given its backing to developer City and Country Group's application for 59 houses and flats on the site of the Rayne Road hospital.

But a spokesman for Mid Essex Hospitals Trust said the money from the sale of the hospital would be invested in "acute services" and not the £5.3 million community hospital needed in Braintree.

"The money received from the sale of the land of the old St Michael's site has gone into the trust's budget to be used for providing acute hospital-based services for the people of mid-Essex," he said.

The Braintree and Witham Times has launched a campaign to get work started on the new community hospital as soon as possible - it is already more than two years behind schedule - and almost 8,500 readers have signed our petition.

Brooks Newmark, Braintree MP, said he was meeting Prime Minister Tony Blair on April 18 to discuss the community hospital issue.

"We were led to believe that part of the proceeds were going to be used for a community hospital, but instead what's happened is they will use the money to fill a black hole in the trust's finances," he said.

"We will continue the fight to try to get a community hospital in Braintree, which the NHS promised us. I will press this point to Tony Blair when I meet him.

"The developers have sold a lot of those houses at St Michael's, but we are still waiting for a community hospital."

Phyllis Webb, chairman of Braintree Pensioners' Action group, added: "I think it's disgusting.

"It's land that belongs to Braintree - why should the money go to Broomfield? Broomfield has a private finance initiative anyway.

"If the council hadn't given permission, they would have had to keep it a hospital. I'm sure all of our pensioners will feel the same as me."

The NHS is expected to make about £2.3m from the sale of the land, which the developer's agent, Harvey Fairbrass, said was a "considerable contribution to health-care services in the area".

Giving her backing to the application, Lady Newton (Con, Coggeshall and North Feering) said: "This, to me, seems like the most exciting scheme for Braintree we'll have seen for some time.

"A great deal of thought has been given to the historic aspect of this building. I can imagine that these units will be very desirable."

Speaking after the meeting, Tim Sargeant, City and Country Group chief executive, said: "We are thrilled to have the opportunity to restore the Victorian buildings of St Michael's Hospital and return them to their former glory."