Royal Albert Fields Announcement
Lancashire Care NHS Trust have selected the greenfield Royal Albert Fields site, in Ashton Road, as their number one choice for a multi-million pound mental health unit in North Lancashire.
The trust claim they have given careful consideration to “Site surveys, site conditions, planning advice.” and now intend to move on to applying for planning permission.
The decision has angered residents from the Royal Albert Cottages, whose houses are overlooked by the NHS-owned land the trust wants to build on. They believe that the Trust has always had the South Lancaster site as its target and that the recent public consultation was a sham.
However getting planning permission for the controversial scheme may not be that easy.Earlier this month, Andrew Dobson, Lancaster City Council’s head of planning, wrote to the Health Trust to tell them they must explain why they want to built on greenfield land rather than revamp the existing hospital at Ridge Lea.