At £19 million, it has cost taxpayers double what it would have cost to upgrade the East Riding market town’s current hospital. Campaigners in nearby Bridlington question why it is needed when the hospital there lies virtually empty.
Westwood Hospital is in the middle of the town and bringing it up to scratch was going to cost £9 million. But the land on which it stands will be worth a lot more once it becomes available for housing after the hospital is demolished.
That is set to happen once developments are completed at Swinemoor Lane on the outskirts of town, after the “No Swinemoor Hospital” campaign failed to get the Government to intervene.
Campaigners wonder why, 10 months before outline planning permission was agreed in September 2009, the owners made an application to facilitate the “construction of a new community hospital” by removing hedgerows. They accused East Riding of Yorkshire Council of having “directed” East Riding Trust to Swinemoor Lane by threatening to refer their preferred option, near the ambulance station in Driffield Road, to the Secretary of State. The decision was unusual as the Swinemoor Lane site is designated Flood Risk Zone 3 – the highest level.
Last December, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley saw for himself 58 beds lying empty at Bridlington Hospital following the transfer of acute and cardiac monitoring facilities to Scarborough 22 miles away.
The ERT said it was “confident” the new hospital would not flood in the next 10 years.
