Vow not to sell off VCH

COUNCILLORS have demanded assurances from health chiefs that a hospital site will not be sold off for housing.

An outline planning application was recently submitted for more than 30 houses on the site of the former Marymount Convent School in Love Lane, Wallasey.

Part of the land is adjacent to Victoria Central Hospital and Liscard councillors and campaigners fear that if planning permission is granted, developers could start to target VCH.

They say any new homes would overlook the recently-closed Wards Six and Seven and are also concerned the plans appear to show that an access road between Marymount and VCH, which is used by emergency vehicles, would be lost in any development.

At Monday's meeting of the Social Care and Health Select Committee, Cllr Chris Jones asked Kathy Doran, chief executive of Birken-head and Wallasey Primary Care Trust (PCT), to confirm whether it intended to object to the application.

Ms Doran said the VCH site would continue to be used for healthcare but admitted she had not yet seen the plans for Mary-mount.

Responding to Cllr Jones' questions, she said: "I can give you an assurance there is no intention that the site should be used for anything other than health and social care purposes.

"I haven't seen the plans; they haven't come across my desk. But I will make sure they do not compromise in any way the use of the site for healthcare."

Cllr Dave Hawkins and the TGWU's Dave Laird, who led the campaign to save Wards Six and Seven, will make a presentation at Birkenhead and Wallasey PCT's board meeting on December 6 to ask them to formally object to the plans.

Cllr Hawkins said: "I have grave concerns that this planning application is the tip of the iceberg and that it will only be a matter of time before developers target the site of the wards.

"Wards Six and Seven are currently mothballed with their windows boarded up and the entrance chained and padlocked. But if they were to re-open, the houses would look directly into the wards. Assurances need to be given by the PCT that wealth will not be put before health."

Dave Laird said: "If developers get permission to build on Marymount it can only be a matter of time before they look at parts of VCH. I'm also very concerned we could lose the access road.

"If Birkenhead and Wallasey PCT is to restore any public credibility, it needs to object to this planning application."