Consent for Southport mental health facility
Sefton Council’s planning committee has granted Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust permission to build a new mental health facility at the existing Boothroyd Mental Health Unit, off Scarisbrick New Road.
The consent enables the redevelopment of the only remaining hospital provision left on the former Southport General Infirmary site, which sits on a key route into Southport town centre. The proposal includes demolition of the existing building, with the space being used for access, parking and landscaping.
Mersey Care and Liverpool Sefton Health Partnership’s proposal will combine local mental health inpatient care and community services on one site. The facility will provide 44 single en-suite bedrooms and replace Mersey Care’s existing Hesketh Centre, which is to close.
Joe Rafferty, Mersey Care chief executive, said: “We welcome this decision which represents a major step closer in our ambition to build a new mental health facility in Southport. With the support of our health partners, if we continue on schedule we hope to hold a ceremony to officially mark the start of groundworks before the end of this year, with the whole new build complete later in 2019.”
The hospital will feature a range of safe inner garden areas where patients will have access to open space, therapeutic and activity areas, with facilities such as a sacred space and a family visiting room.
The professional team includes architect Gilling Dod, landscape architect and ecologist Appletons, structural engineer AJP and planner IBI Group.
