NHS bosses spark outrage over attempt to sell historic hospital site

8:00am Monday 20th February 2012 in

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NHS bosses have sparked fresh outrage over an attempt to sell a historic town centre hospital site apparently owned by the community.

Estate agents were today due to start marketing the former Rutson Hospital, in Northallerton, North Yorkshire – despite key figures being unaware of the
move and proposals having been formed to redevelop the 1,766sq metre plot for community services, including a hospice.

The move by the North Yorkshire and York NHS Trust follows an outcry over recommendations to downgrade paediatric and maternity services at the nearby Friarage Hospital – and comes only weeks
before the Localism Act takes effect, which will see unused “community assets” passed to local groups.

Recently discovered title deeds show the hospital, which has a Georgian-listed frontage, was donated by Henry Rutson in 1906, “in perpetuity…

for the purposes of a hospital for the benefit of the town of Northallerton and its neighbourhood”, ahead of it being requisitioned by the National Heath Service in 1948.

Councilllor John Coulson, Mayor of Northallerton, said the NHS should be challenged, possibly legally, over its right to sell the site.

He said: “It is such a shame that it has got this far without any consultation with local people. If it is not of use to the NHS any more, then they should give it back.”

After learning of the move, Richmond MP William Hague asked Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to look into the matter, while Health Secretary Andrew Lansley
is being urged by campaigners to order the trust to take the site off the market.

Before the hospital closed in 2008 after 130 years, people raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for it.

At the time, trust bosses stated that the buildings were “close to the hearts of many people in and around Northallerton”, and pledged to investigate keeping them for the public.

Due to financial restraints, Hambleton District Council has abandoned redeveloping the site as young people’s and affordable housing, for voluntary organisations, such as Mencap, creating workshops
and training rooms, and setting up a social enterprise and heritage resource centre.

It has also been proposed that a hospice could be created at the site, because the nearest hospices are in Darlington, Stockton, Harrogate and York.

It is understood the site could now attract a supermarket chain wanting to move from a smaller site in the town.

John Sheehan, secretary of the Northallerton and District Local History Society, urged groups interested in using the site to email jgsheehan@btinternet.

com He said: “I don’t believe the timing of this before the Localism Act comes into force is a coincidence. It has almost been a project behind closed doors. It has been impossible for anyone to
approach funding organisations, such as the lottery, without the specifications of the buildings.”

A spokesman for the trust said senior officers were unavailable to comment.