Government approves £48m health centres
The Government's Treasury Office has approved plans for two new mental health centres to be built in Liverpool.
The two facilities are being built on sites in Walton and on Edge Lane, and being delivered by developer Liverpool & Sefton Health Partnership and Mersey Care NHS Trust.
The announcement means that building work will start on the two centres by spring 2012, with a combined cost of around £48m.
Work has already commenced on the demolition of the old Walton Hospital off Rice Lane in Liverpool, ready for the construction of the first of these new facilities.
The design team for both projects, in Walton and on Edge Lane, includes:
- MAAP Architects – Lead designers
- Arup – Engineers
- Camlin Lonsdale and Tony Danford – Landscape design
- Taylor Young – Planning advisors
- Davis Langdon – Quantity surveyor
The main contractor for both schemes is a Farrans Heron Joint Venture, which was appointed by Liverpool & Sefton Health Partnership.
Walton Hospital closed at the end of last year and all its services transferred to Fazakerley.
LSHP said planning permission for both centres went through with no public objections.
Graham Pink, chief executive of LSHP, said: "I am delighted that we now have government approval to go ahead with the plans for these two new Mersey Care facilities. The fact that we also have such a strong level of local support highlights the level of involvement that local communities have had throughout the process.
"From the very outset, Mersey Care NHS Trust has been in close consultation with members of the local community that live around these sites to help us understand their needs and keep them informed about the progress of the project."
Both of the new hospitals are expected to be completed by the end of 2013.
LSHP is a Public Private Partnership company which covers the region as part of the NHS local improvement finance trust, a Government initiative created to help stimulate investment in primary care and local social care facilities.
LHSP has developed community centres in Picton, Walton, Southport, Ainsdale, Litherland, Everton, Aintree, Garston, and Speke, with a further three centres also currently under construction.
This represents an investment of £70m into some of Merseyside's most deprived communities since its establishment in 2004.
