A NEW hospital for Okehampton is a step closer last week following unanimous support from West Devon planners.
Members of West Devon Borough Council's planning committee 'welcomed' the proposals for a new hospital on land off the North Road link but stressed the importance of getting the size right.
'I am looking forward to this development — we have waited a long time for this to happen,' said Okehampton member Cllr Joan Pauley. 'But it is important we get it right at the beginning because there is going to be a huge increase in population.'
Cllr Jayne Hill agreed: 'I am very pleased Okehampton is getting a new hospital but size is my main concern,' she said. 'The town is due to get another 1,100 homes by 2008 and it needs to be big enough. We don't want adjunct buildings on the side of a beautiful new hospital.'
The committee was told the applicants — the Exeter and District Community Health Service Trust — were not able to completely determine the size of the development site at this stage because the ownership of three small areas in the South West corner of the proposed site were not yet known.
Planning officer John Milverton said the hospital would be a single storey building with an apex roof set around a courtyard. It was to be based on Honiton Hospital which was considered one of the best in the county in design terms.
He said this was an outline proposal and issues of detail including design and siting would come back to the committee to be discussed at a later date. He did say however that the design would enable the hospital to have some local character.
The hospital will centralise healthcare facilities in the town and will replace the town's two existing hospitals. The number of car parking spaces is expected to be around 150.
Mr Milverton said concerns about the loss of mature trees on the western boundary from the Mayor of Okehampton and some local residents were justified.
He added the landscape officer felt that the trees were worthy of a preservation order and he wished to see trees in that area included in the plan.
The land is currently allocated in the Local Plan as being a mixture of residential and employment — officers were of the view that, although the hospital did not comply with that designation, the benefits to the community in having a central and accessible hospital site outweighed the disadvantages of displacing housing and commercial development to other sites.