YORK’S new mental health hospital will cost around £29 million, health bosses have revealed.

The Tees, Esk and Wear Valley (TEWV) NHS Trust - which is responsible for mental health services in York - is currently looking for sites to build a replacement for the closed Bootham Park Hospital.

Earlier this week, TEWV senior leaders appeared at a meeting of City of York councillors to update them, and to tell them a site will be put forward early next year.

Brent Kilmurray, TEWV’s chief operating officer, said they were working towards a new facility with a floor space of 5,500 square metres, which they expected would cost around £29 million to complete.

He said: “That’s an initial figure used for planning purposes, based on our experiences of building these things elsewhere, and looking at the local York market conditions for land prices and those sorts of things.”

Mr Kilmurray said that as a large organisation, TEWV had several options when it came to raising the money needed - from its own significant reserves to borrowing from the Department of Health.

“The sum of money does not necessarily worry us as an organisation, but we need to make sure we get good value.”

He went on to tell councillors the trust was appointing architects to work on designs for the different options available.

It has also just finished a series of consultation events to give people a chance to hear about, and have their say on, the proposals.

In them, TEWV staff explained the plan for a 60-bed facility split into single sex wards for either adults or older people.

Deputy medical director Dr Stephen Wright said they hoped those 60 acute beds could cater for York patients, putting an end to “out-of-area placements”, but specialist beds which are provided the national body NHS England could still be further afield.

Around 12 sites are being considered for the new hospital - including the Grade I listed Bootham Park, The Retreat, Clifton Park hospital in Rawcliffe and several other existing NHS sites. TEWV is now planning a further formal 12 week consultation to start in September.