Savills planning division has secured extensive planning permissions at two major hospitals on the south coast.
Savills Wimborne planning team secured a resolution to grant planning permission, subject to the completion of a s106 legal agreement, for a new Major Emergency Hospital at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital healthcare campus.
This comprises a new six storey, 25,000 sqm building at the front of the hospital campus to accommodate accident and emergency, critical care, maternity units and childrens’ health, a new pathology laboratory (3,200sqm), a nursing home (3,000sqm), and parking for approximately 400 additional patient, visitor and staff cars.
The project is fundamental to the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital Trust realising its strategic estates objectives for the future of hospital services in East Dorset as part of the wider Clinical Services Review. Significant Government funding is linked to securing planning permission for this ambitious new hospital development.
The existing healthcare campus is highly constrained and it was necessary for the planning strategy to address numerous complex issues including multiple access and egress points onto busy primary distributor roads, the need for on-site vehicle parking to be balanced with the core objective to shift to more sustainable forms of travel, several areas of protected woodland and uncertainty regarding the status of the council-owned adjoining development site (Wessex Fields) that was to be the location for the new pathology laboratory.
Over a period of 18 months the Savills planning team worked closely with the client and its large consultant team to bring forward a scheme that balanced the Trust’s aspirations for essential new healthcare infrastructure within the relevant planning parameters. This required extensive negotiation with multiple officers from BCP Council and culminated in an officer recommendation to grant with no objections from planning consultees. The application received overwhelming support at Planning Committee and was approved subject to the completion of the legal agreement.
This project also involved input from Savills heritage and development valuation teams.
Savills was appointed through the NHS Commercial Solutions Framework - an OJEU compliant framework that allows public sector bodies to make direct appointments for property services up to any value.
Savills planning also secured two planning permissions at Poole Hospital for a four-storey extension to the main hospital building to provide state-of-the-art ‘barn style’ operating theatres. This was another important component in the delivery of improved healthcare facilities in Dorset as part of the Clinical Services Review.
Savills provided advice on planning strategy for both applications (an initial outline application June 2019 followed by a full application for an amended scheme April 2020) with key issues to address comprising potential impacts on a neighbouring listed church, transport and parking, height, scale and design parameters and sustainability requirements. As part of this process Savills engaged with planning officers at the Council to ensure that the client’s objectives and aspirations were understood.
Savills provided heritage services in respect of the site’s proximity to an adjacent listed building.
Both the initial outline application and subsequent full application were approved under officer delegated powers within the statutory determination timescales. This was critical in terms of the client’s programme and objectives for project delivery.
Again, Savills was appointed through the NHS Commercial Solutions Framework.
Peter Lamb, planning director, says: ‘Savills Wimborne Planning team is delighted to have secured a resolution to grant and planning permission for state-of-the-art new healthcare facilities at both Bournemouth and Poole hospitals. Our experience of working on complex applications in Dorset, local insight and planning strategy advice helped us to deliver positive outcomes for both hospitals in little over 16 months - a significant achievement for some 35,000 sqm. of development representing a significant investment into the future of local healthcare infrastructure. This is a key milestone for the Clinical Services Review in Dorset and we have been proud to support the NHS with these exciting projects.’