Plans in for long-awaited Horwich health hub

United Healthcare Developments has detailed its ambitions to transform the former leisure centre site into a three-storey medical facility capable of providing primary care to 10,500 patients.

Located on 2.6 acres off Victoria Road in Horwich, the site has been vacant since the demolition of the Horwich Leisure Centre in 2018. A new leisure centre was built the year before.

Plans to turn the old leisure centre site into a health hub were first submitted to Bolton Council in 2016. Outline planning permission was secured that same year.

Flash forward six years and the details of the proposed hub have been submitted. Designed by PRP Architects, the Horwich Health and Wellbeing Hub would come in at 27,680 sq ft spread across three storeys.

There would be two main practices at the facility: Pike View Medical Practice and Bolton Community Practice’s Market Surgery branch. The Bolton Foundation Trust would also claim part of the second floor.

Each of the practices would be relocating from buildings that they say are no longer fit for purpose. Within the new hub, they would each have their own treatment and consultation rooms. They would share a waiting area and staff room.

The hub would also have a 100-hour pharmacy of 1,050 sq ft.

PRP Architects has designed the hub to secure a BREEAM Excellent rating.

The proposed entrance for the health hub. Credit: via planning documents

Patients accessing the hub would be able to park in one of the 101 spaces in the building’s car park. Of the 101 spaces, eight would be designated disabled.

The car park would be shared between the health hub and the new Horwich Leisure Centre. While the health hub would have 101 dedicated spaces, the leisure centre would have 99.

The project team for the Horwich Health and Wellbeing Hub consists of geo-environmental and flood risk experts PRP Environmental, as well as noise consultants PDA Acoustic. Redmore Environmental Consultants is the air quality expert, while The Transport Consultancy is the transport consultant. Envirotech provided arboricultural, ecology and biodiversity services.

Looking to learn more about the health hub? The project’s application reference number with Bolton Council is 14448/22.