Murray Royal Hospital - latest developments
Update
NHS Tayside has submitted a new application for outline planning consent for Additional Mental Health Facilities at Murray Royal Hospital. The application is dated Oct 08 and relates to an extension of the approved outline application boundary to include land to the south west, the non listed buildings next to the chapel and a sloping area of ground to the eastern edge of the site. It also includes part of Muirhall Road.
The bidders have considered land outwith the area in the original planning approval and the extension being sought will allow all bids to be considered equally. We are told that the revised boundary does not mean that additional facilities are envisaged or that the extended area is the preferred area for development. Plans and information are available at Pullar House, Kinnoull Street. 8.45a.m. to 5p.m. Monday to Friday (ref 08/02078/OUT).
Our concerns are detailed in a letter from Graham Fleming.
Word file: Letter from Graham Fleming to PKC Planners November 2008 (28KB)
There are now two bidders remaining, one having dropped out. The preferred bidder will be announced at the end of June 2009. Enabling works will start not later than January 2009.
This document contains information about the latest meeting of the Design Quality Group:-
Word file: Murray Royal Update 8 September 2008 (21KB)
Background
NHS Tayside has outline planning consent to develop the Murray Royal Hospital. The development will be carried out by a contractor who will bid for the contract. The planning consent relates to only part of the site and would mean high density buildings and loss of open space for patients. NHS have said that they will tell bidders that they can look at the whole of the original site although of course the planning consent does not relate to the whole site.
A Medium Secure Unit to take prisoners from Carstairs High Security Prison will be included.
In the current draft local plan the remainder of the site is designated for high density housing.
There is a playing field in the hospital grounds which is well used by local youngsters. Under the current plans this will be lost although there is an agreement that it be replaced sometime.
The Community Council is very concerned about
1.Traffic. There will be construction traffic during the building of the new hospital, more traffic generated by extra patients and staff plus extra traffic if housing is given the go-ahead. Bridgend junction is already at full capacity and the roads leading to the hospital are narrow residential streets.
2. Loss of open space. The hospital grounds are of therapeutic benefit to the patients and are used by local people making the hospital part of the community and an asset for Perth generally. If there is not continuity of provision of the playing field there is a risk of youngsters losing interest and the tremendous impetus to use it disappearing.
3. Listed Buildings. NHS Tayside have no use for these so their future is in doubt.
What's happening now?
The Community Council has set up the Murray Royal Working Group (MRWG) comprising Brian Raine, Richard Salvin, Deirdre Beaton, Andrew Douglas and Graham Fleming.
An information day for bidders has been held and 3 bidders have emerged. There will be formal presentations of their plans at 3 stages (end of April, beginning of June and mid September) with meetings in between to discuss design, technical, legal, financial etc. issues. A bidder may drop out at any stage but if not one of the 3 will be eliminated in September. Construction is due to start in April 2009.
As part of the planning consent NHS Tayside was told to consult with interested parties so MRWG has been attending meetings and reporting to the Community Council and the public. We have tried to insist that the above issues be addressed and the bidders be made aware of our concerns.
The three bidders selected are Canmore Partnership (Tayside Mental Health), John Laing/Laing O'Rourke and Robertson Capital Projects (Taycare).
There are obviously commercial confidentiality concerns and we discussed with NHS Tayside the terms of a confidentiality agreement to be signed by the MRWG members. Meantime representatives of two of the bidders, John Laing/Laing O'Rourke and Taycare agreed to meet us on Monday 7th April. We felt that the meetings were productive and that we were able to put the views of the community as expressed to us. The bidders did seem to be glad of the opportunity to find out more about these. To date there is no arrangement to meet the third bidder, Canmore.
We had our regular engagement meeting with NHS Tayside on 10th April. We should have had a meeting on 27th May but this was cancelled and rescheduled to 10th July. This meeting was also cancelled and moved to 6th August. We felt that this was too long as matters are moving forward swiftly. We had our latest meeting on 7th July with the next scheduled for 22nd September.
We have managed to get a representative on the Design Quality Group which will consider the aesthetics etc. of the new buildings. There have been three meetings already and the latest meeting ws on 29th August. Our representatives have had to agree to be bound by the confidentiality agreement so can only give us limited reports. They can however seek to safeguard or at least represent the interests of our community.
The Bidders are not looking at access to the site as that is not their responsibility. We are still pressing the planners to look at traffic issues now and not to wait until an application is actually lodged. The Bidders put forward their stage 2 presentations on 2nd July. The stage 3 presentations are now scheduled for the end of July.
What can residents do?
You can see the planning application at Pullar House or on the Council's website.(06/02346/OUT Perth).
You can contact your local councillors (H.Stewart, P.Barrett, J Coburn and A McLellan -see links on Contact Us) and the Planning Department.
You can ask that housing be taken off the draft local plan until the traffic situation is addressed.