New Lancashire secure unit plans spark calls for rethink

Plans to build a new rehabilitation unit at a former mental hospital have sparked calls for other parts of the site to be returned to use.

The Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust has submitted plans to build a new 20-bed low security unit for mental health patients at Guild Lodge in the hospital complex at Whittingham, near Preston.

It would provide a 10-bed mental health facility and a 10-bed low-secure unit, which would be connected to the existing medium-security unit already on site.

George Wilkins, who represents the area on Lancashire County Council, said that calls from the new coalition government to stop building on green field land could see other areas of the site returned to use.

He said: “It makes you wonder why the hospital was shut down in the first place if there is such a need for this kind of facility.

“Perhaps there are other semi-derelict buildings on other parts of the site which could easily be returned back to use and with the new government talking of development on existing sites being preferable, why not?

“We have a 110-year history of dealing with people with mental illness at Whittingham and a population which is sensible enough to realise patients can be rehabilitated, I would imagine it is the perfect location.”

In its application for the development to Preston Council, the Trust said that the building would house people with “acute mental health conditions” who are in the process of “returning into the wider community after a period of inpatient care”.

It adds that the buildings would replace facilities presently housed in cottages on the site and the Hemitage Step Down facility, which forms part of the site planned for hundreds of homes by developer Taylor Wimpey.

Stan Hunter, chairman of Whittingham Parish Council, said local people would be pleased to see the hospitals operations moved out of the old cottages.

He said: “The old doctor’s and chaplain’s house over-looking the cricket pitch next to the church were always too close to residential areas, so if they are moving those into this new facility, that is very positive. The hospital is very secure already, and providing that this facility follows suit, I think everyone will welcome it.”

Whittingham Hospital opened in 1873 and by the start of the Second World War was the largest in the country, housing 3,533 patients and more than 500 staff. It closed in 1995. The latest plans, drawn up by Fulwood-based planning consultants, De Pol Associates, will be heard within the next three months.