Nurses’ flats at Bootham Park Court to be demolished

Brian Golding Brian Golding

A DERELICT nursing accommodation block at York Hospital is to be be demolished this summer, NHS bosses have said.

Bootham Park Court will be knocked down to make way for “new facilities” at the Wigginton Road site after City of York Council’s plans to turn the site into temporary accommodation proved too expensive.

Brian Golding, director of estates and facilities at the hospital trust, said: “We have been given planning permission to demolish the former nursing accommodation at Bootham Park Court, and we are now in the process of appointing a contractor.

“We hope to complete the demolition work this summer.

“The Bootham Park Court site forms part of our longer-term development plan for the hospital, with a view to building new facilities to house some of our services.”

Coun Tracey Simpson-Lang, City of York Council’s housing chief, fought to have the site renovated and turned over to the Property Guardian’ scheme, whereby tenants would live in the building on a short-term basis until its future was decided.

The scheme was scrapped when it was found that it would cost £5 million to bring the building up to habitable condition because it would have needed new windows and a new roof.

Coun Simpson-Laing said: “I’m pleased that the site is coming into development but it was a shame that Property Guardian didn’t think it was appropriate for use in the time it was empty.”

The accommodation block comprises hundreds of former nursing flats but was taken out of use in 2009 when the hospital stopped homing nurses on site.

Comments(10)

lezyork1966 says...
9:57am Wed 2 May 12

ok I am not a structural engineer, but bricks and mortar stands many years and these flats ae not that old, so i cant see how theres structural issues.

inside will be a mess, but if you build new, then inside will be a mess...

how hard and costly could it have been to gut them back to empty shells over the cost of knocking them down to build new empty shells?

no doubt when it happens there will not be built to a standard needed for temporary accommodation and cheap housing but to something that can be rented out for quite a bit more....

Ignatius Lumpopo says...
10:18am Wed 2 May 12

Perhaps when it's knocked down the site won't be the embarrassment it has been for the past ten years. It would have been ideal for short-term housing, as Cllr Simpson-Lang suggested. How can people keep on bleating about how wonderful the NHS is when it lets situations like this continue for so long?

Stan2Attention says...
10:49am Wed 2 May 12

Lezyork - Just to point out ... They're not planning to build more flats. Brian Golding says they're going to build new facilities to house some of the hospital's services.

Mr Crabtree says...
2:00pm Wed 2 May 12

As usual Coun Simpson-laing talks a good game. She tried, but failed.

I look at her in this way - she is trying; she tries my patience with the twaddle she spouts. 'There was never a 50% target' (for affordable/social housing policy) being a classic.
Like the 50% target, she is a failure. Her support for ill-conceived, damaging policies like the 50% target, has left York in the worst imaginable housing mess. It is time her tenure was demolished and crushed along with her policies, and replaced with someone who makes things (new housing) happen instead of stopping anything being built !

gravitydrips says...
2:17pm Wed 2 May 12

Fingers crossed they'll build a new hospital block on the site, cos the present hospital can't cope with the current demand placed on it anymore.

monkeyhanger says...
7:05pm Wed 2 May 12

5 million for roof etc? It will be demolished and housing built,money will change hands.

Yorkie-Clifton says...
9:35pm Wed 2 May 12

Anyone thought of demolish and new student accommodation for St Johns ?????

piaggio1 says...
10:57pm Wed 2 May 12

new student accommodation for St Johns ?????

er, nail on head ,springs to mind

the butler says...
7:05pm Thu 3 May 12

Why , if there is a shortage of nurses will the N.H.S not leave space available for, say twenty nurses, plus tempory accomodation for relatives of patients who live out of town who cannot afford massive hotel costs whilst visiting their kinfolk?

Whis1962 says...
12:43pm Fri 4 May 12

This area in the short term will be landscaped, until it is decided what exspansion plans are required.

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